Simon Yates receives four month ban, will miss Tour de France
British rider will resume racing at the Tour of Poland after serving his time for a non-intentional anti-doping rule violation
UCI announced that Simon Yates of Orica-GreenEdge has received a back-dated four-month ban from racing. At the end of April news leaked that the British rider, who was scheduled to race the Tour de France, failed an in race doping control on March 12 at Paris-Nice.
The UCI statement on the suspension said, “Simon Yates has been sanctioned with a period of ineligibility of four months for a non-intentional anti-doping rule violation committed on 12 March 2016.” A sample taken on the sixth stage of Paris-Nice found the presence terbutaline which is a banned substance without a therapeutic use exception.
A University of Copenhagen study found that high doses of terbutaline increases isometric muscle strength and enhances peak power during a Wingate test in trained men but because it has medical uses athletes can use it with a TUE.
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Yates’s ban from racing will end on July 11.
When the positive test was announced at the end of April the team explained the circumstances saying, “The use of terbutaline without a current TUE is the reason it has been flagged as an adverse analytical finding. This is solely based on a human error that the doctor in question has taken full responsibility for. There has been no wrongdoing on Simon Yates’ part. The team takes full responsibility for this mistake and wishes to underline their support for Simon during this process.”
Yates, who is in contention to represent Great Britain at the Rio Olympics, will resume racing at the Tour of Poland which begins the day after his suspension ends on July 12. Orica-GreenEdge said in a statement, “After a four-month break due to a pending decision around his adverse analytical finding in March this year, ORICA-GreenEDGE’s Simon Yates can now finally resume racing in July at the Tour of Poland.”
