Cadel Evans looses Thomas Dekker due to positive test for EPO in 2007

July

BRUSSELS (AP) Dutch cyclist Thomas Dekker will not take part in the Tour de France after testing positive for the illegal blood-booster EPO.

His Silence-Lotto team says Wednesday that the cyclist recently learned a retested urine sample taken in December 2007 contained the banned hormone. Dekker was riding for the Dutch racing team Rabobank when the sample was taken.

Dekker joined Silence-Lotto last year on a two-year contract.

Silence-Lotto team leader Marc Sergeant says he was “very disappointed” by the news, adding he moved to suspend and replace Dekker ahead of the Tour.

The Tour de France starts Saturday in Monaco.

Eds notes, Dekker’s abnormal blood values held him out of the Rabobank team’s Tour line up last year and was part of the reason he left Rabobank. This is the second Silence-Lotto rider who joined the team to be suspended for anti-doping violations. They had signed Bernard Kohl who finished third and won the mountains jersey in last year’s tour. This also shows the UCI’s biological passport program is rooting out cheats and allowing target testing, lets hope this leads to a cleaner sport and level playing field.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 12:40 pm by Randall Wolf. Print This Post | Email This Post

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