Movistar's Jaime Roson banned for four years

Spanish rider Jaime Roson has been banned from the sport for four years following an adverse analytical finding in his biological passport, reports the BBC. The 26-year-old – who won last year’s Vuelta a Aragon and finished eighth overall in Tirreno-Adriatico – has had his contract terminated by Movistar.

Roson was first suspended in June after the UCI informed Movistar that anti-doping tests had returned suspicious results.

The adverse analytical finding dated back to January 2017, when he was racing for Caja Rural. Commenting in June, Movistar claimed that since joining them "the rider’s behaviour, health analytics and biological passport values have been irreproachable".

Announcing the termination of his contract, Abarca Sports, which owns Movistar, said in a statement: "Abarca Sports wishes to underline that the period when the irregular values in Roson's biological passport were found is dated one year before the start of his contract with our team."

A statement from the UCI said: “The anti-doping tribunal found the rider guilty of an anti-doping rule violation (use of a prohibited substance) based on abnormalities detected in his biological passport and imposed a four-year period of ineligibility on the rider.”