Didn't know where to put this but this seems like as good a place as any. It's interesting to read up on the UCI's list of banned athletes, what they did and the bans, it highlights some interesting inconsistencies.
- Apparently Carlos Barredo's results from October 2007 to September 2011 have been wiped due to biopassport irregularities. Yet they haven't advised the statistics department as this does not appear to have taken place.
- Morocco's Saïd Bdadou tested positive for prednisone and prednisolone at his national Tour in 2013; he was banned for 18 months.
- Volodymyr Bileka is currently undergoing a four year ban for pseudoephedrine, which he tested positive for at the Tour of Trakya in 2012 while riding for known clean team Törku Seker Spor. You may recognise the name: he was Popo's friend who was busted in 2008 for EPO, which scared Popo off the juice causing him to suck hard at Lotto. Why is he going to be eligible to come back at an age he will still be able to do something?
- Libardo Niño, the Chris Horner of time past, tested positive at the 2010 Vuelta a Colombia shortly before his 42nd birthday. He continued to ride on until the positive was ratified, and was officially banned for eight years at the end of May 2011. His results between the dates of the test and May 13th 2011 were nullified, removing his 2nd place in the Tour de Langkawi. However, it means that he was able to keep his results from the Tour of Azerbaijan and the International Presidency Tour of Iran - which he won* - as they fall between the date of the wiped results and the ratification of the ban. Can somebody shed some light on this?!
- Vladislav Gorbunov, the talented Kazakh on Astana Continental who was 12th in the Volta a Portugal with some impressive rides, was busted for methylhexanamine at the race, which has been rather impressively swept under the carpet. It only came to my attention when I saw Davidenok was leading in Qinghai and wondered where Gorbunov's results had been this year as he was looking impressive...
- Though we all more or less knew it was him due to the timing of his retirement mid-season connected to the Secret Pro talk of a big name GT winner being busted on the bio-passport, Denis Menchov is suspended until 2015. However, while the UCI have asked for results to be scrubbed, these ONLY apply to the Tour de France, so his 5th in the 2011 Vuelta remains as does his stage win on Bola del Mundo. If his 2010 result IS scrubbed (which it doesn't appear to have been officially), this would put Samuel Sánchez up to 2nd and Jürgen van den Broeck on to the podium.
- Aleksandr Serebryakov's ban is four years for his first offence. This suggests "aggravating circumstances" though there didn't seem to be any non-compliance on his part. This ban is as long as Bileka's for his second offence.
- Patrik Sinkewitz's 8 year ban for his recombinant HGH positive runs out in August 2020, which is nine and a half years from the positive. The UCI has also requested a scrubbing of his results in the interim period while he was riding under appeal, which would make the ban far longer than the 8 years. That said, second offence should be a life ban.
- Miguel Ubeto, banned for GW501516, is the first such rider to return to racing, with his suspension ending last month, he is racing the Vuelta a Venezuela as we speak.
*Niño only won this GC by default anyhow. The International Presidency Tour was a very mountainous race and many of the international teams that race other races in Iran were not interested in participating. Also it seems testing was very strong here as 5 other riders tested positive, including original winner Mirsamad Pourseyedi and 4th placed Rahim Emami, both riding for Azad University (you may recognise these names, especially Pourseyedi, who has returned from his ban at the same - if not better - level of climbing that he showed in this performance, which was a street above his previous level as well).
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