Seven South Americans suspended

The UCI has suspended seven South American riders for various doping substances detected in Latin American races over the past six months.

The international cycling federation handed down the provisional bans Tuesday, but the infractions date back to races going back as far as the Tour do Rio in late July, the Volta do Sao Paolo in October and the Vuelta a Bolivia in November.

All the riders are from relatively minor teams, but reveals that the widening-net of anti-doping controls extends beyond the elite pro European peloton.

Four riders — Brazilians Tiago Damasceno, Flavio Reblin and Wagner Alvez and Chilean Manuel Villalobos — are provisionally suspended after testing positive for Stanozolol metabolites in urine samples taken from the Rio and San Paolo races, respectively.

Another Brazilian, Elton Silva, was also provisionally suspended for mepthentemine and its metabolite as well as phentemine in urine samples taken during the Sao Paolo tour in October.

All above samples were reviewed at the WADA-sanctioned lab in Montreal.

Peruvian rider Ronald Luza and Bolivian Fernando Espindola were suspended for cocaine metabolites and presence of 19-norandrosterone as well as Boldenone PC and its metabolite. These samples were taken during the Tour of Bolivia in November and samples were reviewed at the WADA-accredited lab in Bogota.

FILED UNDER: News TAGS: doping

Andrew Hood

Hood cut his journalistic teeth at Colorado dailies before the web boom opened the door to European cycling in the mid-1990s. Hood's covered every Tour since 1996 and has been VeloNews' European correspondent since 2002. He lives in Leon, Spain, when he's not chasing bike races.

• All articles by Andrew