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Simon Yates given 4-month ban for positive test for asthma drug

UCI says length of ban reflects "non-intentional" nature of offence after Orica-GreenEdge failed to lodge TUE...

British rider Simon Yates will miss the Tour de France after the UCI banned him for four months due to a "non-intentional" positive test for the anti-asthma drug Terbutaline at Paris-Nice in March.

The sanction was confirmed in a statement this afternoon by Orica-GreenEdge, the team the 23-year-old from Bury rides for alongside his twin brother, Adam.

The UCI has also published a statement outlining the details of the sanction.

When news first emerged in April that Yates had returned an adverse analytical finding, Orica-GreenEdge said that it was a result of its doctor failing to apply for a therapeutic use exemption that would have allowed the rider,  who is asthmatic, to use the drug in an inhaler.

> Simon Yates tests positive for asthma drug

The Australian WorldTour team's general manager, Shayne Bannan, said today: “Simon has been given a four-month sanction by the UCI given the administrative error in not having a required TUE for his asthma inhaler at Paris-Nice."

"The team has taken full responsibility for this all along and we look forward to seeing Simon back racing. 

"It has been an unfortunate break due to circumstances that Simon cannot be blamed, but above all, we are happy that is has now come to a conclusion. 

"Simon has been training well and we welcome him back on the roster for a strong second part of the season."

Yates will return to racing at the Tour of Poland next month.

The UCI said in a statement that the rider had "been sanctioned with a period of ineligibility of four months for a non-intentional anti-doping rule violation committed on 12 March 2016."

His ban will end on 11 July and Orica-GreenEdge says he will return to racing later in July at the Tour of Poland.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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7 comments

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HarrogateSpa | 7 years ago
1 like

AND to forget to mention it on top of using it.

I read that the doctor did write it down as something Yates had taken, but didn't apply for a TUE in advance. If that's the case your comment is unfair.

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Colin Peyresourde | 7 years ago
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Well his team took that extraordinarily well. It does seem odd to use a drug that needs a TUE and yet there are others that do the same job that don't AND to forget to mention it on top of using it. I guess these things happen.....

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bobbinogs | 7 years ago
1 like

Err, I was voting for a bit of common sense as in a 3 month ban and then back for the TdF. Gutted for the lad.

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tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
0 likes

There might be something between a 4mo ban and being hind, drawn and quartered mail

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Skylark | 7 years ago
0 likes

Pudgy yet fitter than the next best fiddle.

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bobbinogs | 7 years ago
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Well that's a bit rum.  Is it just me or has the promised dawn of an enlightened and transformed UCI failed to materialise? 

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keirik replied to bobbinogs | 7 years ago
1 like

Bobbinogs wrote:

Well that's a bit rum.  Is it just me or has the promised dawn of an enlightened and transformed UCI failed to materialise? 

 

They made a mistake, they informed UCI about it, and he's been punished for it.

what did you want? hung drawn and quartered?

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