Pecharromán wins CAS appeal

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has ruled Jose Antonio Pecharromán's nine months ban be lifted. The sanction was imposed by the Competition Committee of the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) for the use of a substance to treat his baldness problems, according to the press agency Europapress.

CAS has accepted the appeal of Pecharromán, who is represented by lawyer Jose Rodriguez, the former president of the Association of Professional Cyclists (ACP) in Spain. The initial ban was issued on April 9, 2008, by RFEC.

Pecharromán tested positive when he was riding for the Portuguese Benfica team. The test came at the Clásica de los Puertos de Guadarrama, on August 26, 2007. The substance taken was Proscar, which contains finasteride, a masking agent for steroids.

The winner of the 2003 Volta a Catalunya insists that he is innocent. He said that neither the specialist who treated him, dermatologist Romero Nieto, nor the information flyer of the prescribed medicine showed that the product could result in a positive doping control.

Pecharromán was dismissed by Benfica at the end of 2007 and his lawyers also appealed this decision. They argue that the sacking came before the actual sentence was issued and that this was not an intentional case of doping.

Benfica was fined 54,000 euro in compensation for unfair dismissal, although the team appealed the penalty and the case is still pending a final settlement.(AS)