The UCI has introduced that Astana construction group rider Ilkhan Dostiyev has been passed a four-year racing ban after trying out certain for the blood booster CERA.
22-year-old Dostiyev moved to the WorldTour groups Continental-level squad closing yr from Kazakhstani squad Vino SKO. He’d cross on to complete 2d on the Excursion du Rwanda and the Giro della Valle d’Aosta earlier than successful the two.2-ranked Turul Romaniei level race in August.
The UCI introduced that “intelligence-led” centered trying out of Dostiyev used to be performed. He’d check certain for CERA in an out-of-competition check on July 30, 9 days after the Giro della Valle d’Aosta, the place he additionally took a mountain level victory and gained the issues classification.
Any other certain check adopted on the Turul Romaniei, the place he crowned the rostrum forward of teammate Davide Toneatti. The check used to be performed on August 17, the penultimate day of the five-stage race.
Dostiyev, who completed his season in August after racing the Excursion de Hainan as a part of Astana’s WorldTour squad, used to be fired through the group closing September. His ban dates from September 9, 2024 and can run to September 8, 2028, the UCI mentioned.
“The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announces that Kazakh rider Ilkhan Dostiyev has been sanctioned with a period of ineligibility of four years following an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) for the presence of Methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta (CERA)1 in two samples collected – as a result of intelligence-led testing – out-of-competition on 30 July 2024 and in-competition on 17 August 2024 during the Turul Romaniei (Tour of Romania),” the UCI introduced.
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“In accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code (the Code) and the UCI Anti-Doping Rules (UCI ADR), the period of ineligibility started on 9 September 2024 and will remain in force until 8 September 2028.
“The case has been resolved by the use of an acceptance of penalties as equipped for through the Code and the UCI ADR. The UCI is not going to remark to any extent further.”
CERA is a drug in the family of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents which stimulates new red blood cell growth. Its primary use comes in medical settings to treat anaemia caused by kidney disease, chemotherapy, HIV/AIDS, or major surgery.
Thanks to its ability to boost red blood cell growth, and with it oxygen-carrying ability, CERA emerged in professional cycling shortly around the same time it was approved for medical use by the European Medical Agency in July 2007.
However, in contrast to the years-long wait for a reliable EPO test, a test for CERA had been developed swiftly and quietly.
As a result, numerous top names – Saunier Duval riders Riccardo Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli, and Gerolsteiner riders Stefan Schumacher, Bernhard Kohl, and Davide Rebellin, Ceramica Panaria rider Emanuele Sella, and LPR Brakes rider Danilo Di Luca – were all caught using the drug in 2008 and 2009.
Thanks to the development of a reliable test, usage of the drug seemingly wouldn’t hit the heights of the 1990s EPO era, though Dostiyev joins a small list of riders on the UCI sanctions list to have been banned for using CERA in recent years.
Different riders recently sanctioned for CERA positives come with Colombian Luis Alberto Largo (who examined certain in 2017), Costa Rican Cesar Rojas (2017), Argentine Juan Pablo Dotti (2021), and Czech racer Daniel Vysočan (2024).
