Four-year ban for Russian rider Serebryakov after two EPO positives

The Russian rider Alexander Serebryakov has been banned for four years after testing positive twice for EPO, reports the Spanish website, Biciciclismo. The 26-year-old spent the 2012 season riding for the American Professional Continental outfit Team Type 1, before moving to Euskaltel-Euskadi in 2013.

He left Euskaltel-Euskadi in early April after the UCI confirmed that an out-of-competition test on 18 March 2013 had resulted in an adverse analytical finding for EPO.

In June this year, the UCI revealed that it had requested the retesting of another sample taken in an out-of-competition test in February 2012, which also transpired to test positive for EPO.

Serebryakov rode only seven races for Euskaltel-Euskadi, finishing three of them and failing to complete any of the three WorldTour races he participated in – the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen – Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem, and the Tour of Flanders.

With 11 victories, Serebryakov had been Team Type 1’s most successful rider in 2012, including winning the American one-day race, the Philapelphia International Championship.

Renamed Team Novo Nordisk for 2013, all its riders this year have diabetes, but the Russian was one of several racing for it last year who do not have the condition.

Meanwhile Russia’s national anti-doping agency, RUSADA, has said that two female cyclists, Elena Bocharinkova and Yana Bezrukova, have been suspended for two years commencing 10 July 2013.

Six Russian male weightlifters have also been given doping-related bans, although no further details were given.