Spanish government ordered to pay €725,000 in damages to 2005 Vuelta winner Roberto Heras

Spain’s Supreme Court has ordered the country’s government to pay Roberto Heras €725,000 (£612,000) in compensation for lost earnings resulting from his positive test for EPO, subsequently ruled invalid, during the 2015 Vuelta a Espana.

Heras, now 43, won the race that year for a record-breaking fourth time, but was later declared to have tested positive for EPO from a sample taken on the penultimate stage.

The overall victory was instead awarded to the Russian rider, Denis Menchov, with Heras banned for two years, effectively ending his career.

But in 2011, the High Court of Justice of Castilla y León ruled that the government-run sports disciplinary committee which heard the case, did not have sufficient powers to rule on an international race such as the Vuelta.

It also highlighted irregularities over the storage and handling of the samples taken from Heras, as well as the fact his anonymity had not been protected.

Rejecting the Spanish government’s final avenue of appeal against damages it had previously been told to pay Heras, the Supreme Court noted that the sanction previously imposed on Heras were the “direct, immediate and exclusive” cause of the termination of his employment and consequent loss of earnings and sponsorship opportunities.

 Heras dominated the Vuelta in the first half of the last decade, winning it with Kelme in 2000, US Postal in 2003, and Liberty Seguros in 2004 and 2005.

From 2001 to 2003 he was a key support rider for Lance Armstrong the Tour de France, helping the Texan win three of the seven yellow jerseys he would later be stripped of.