Olympic road race cyclist fails drugs test

A Brazilian cyclist has failed a doping test after he took part in the Rio Olympics.

Kleber Da Silva Ramos, 30, took part in the men's Olympic road race on 6 August, but despite officials suspecting performance enhancing drugs, actually failed to finish.

It emerged that he failed a test taken on July 31st, and he now awaits a ruling on his results.

He is the fourth Olympic participant to fail a drugs test - the other are a Chinese swimmer, a Bulgarian runner and a Polish weightlifter.

Earlier this year we reported how the UCI was to appeal the decision of Russia’s anti-doping agency to clear Olga Zabelinskaya, the cyclist who won two medals at the 2012 Olympic Games, of doping charges.

Last year Zabelinskaya, who won bronze medals in both the time trial and the road race in London – the latter behind Marianne Vos of the Netherlands and Team GB’s Lizzie Armitstead – failed an anti-doping control for the banned weight-loss stimulant octopamine.

The anti-doping tribunal of Russia’s national cycling federation, the FSVR, has cleared her of any wrongdoing, meaning she will be able to compete at this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio, reports Inside The Games (link is external).

The cyclist had claimed that she had either ingested the substance innocently, or that the elevated levels of it that she tested positive for had been produced naturally by her body.

It is banned in-competition, but permitted in tests taken out-of-competition, and occurs naturally in a number of foods.

The UCI has confirmed that it plans to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.