Cycling-Pantano handed four-year ban following positive anti-doping test

Former Tour de France stage winner Jarlinson Pantano has been handed a four-year suspension after failing an anti-doping test last year, the International Cycling Union (UCI) said on Wednesday. Colombian Pantano retired last June, two months after he was provisionally suspended following a positive test for the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO).

He had also been suspended by his then Trek-Segafredo team after the test carried out in February, 2019, came back positive. "The (UCI Anti-Doping) Tribunal found the rider guilty of an anti-doping rule violation (presence of Recombinant Erythropoietin) and imposed a 4-year period of ineligibility on the rider," the UCI said in a statement.

Pantano, 31, won a Tour de France stage in 2016 and was crowned Colombian time trial champion the following year.