Fifth positive possible from Tour

After results of the doping controls made at the Tour de France were made public by the French Anti-doping Agency (ALFD) on Thursday, a possible fifth doping positive has been inferred from the results by several media outlets. The AFLD announced that it had found 22 abnormal results from 13 riders out of the hundreds of controls taken during the Tour.

Of those 'abnormal' results, six riders returned positives for glucocorticosteroids but were covered by a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) by either the UCI or the AFLD. One rider, who was not identified, tested positive for the same substance but was not covered by an exemption, leading to speculation that this could be announced as a failed doping control by the AFLD.

Two others were found to have beta-2 antagonists (asthma medications) in their sample, but both had TUEs.

The remaining abnormal controls were made public during the Tour de France: the EPO positives of Manuel Beltran, Moises Dueñas and Riccardo Riccò accounted for four abnormal tests, while the stimulant heptaminol detected in Dmitri Fofonov's urine was found twice.

The AFLD also revealed that 76 of the 180 riders who started the Tour had a TUE for at least one drug.