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

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.