Turgot drops to amateur team, Another award for Van Avermaet, Cookson welcomes Iceland into UCI
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Yury Trofimov (Tinkoff)(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Team Katusha(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Sebastien Turgot (AG2R La Mondiale)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Greg Van Avermaet and wife Ellen (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Yuri Trofimov, who heads to the Caja Rural-Seguros RGA team next season from Tinkoff, is one of four riders to be stripped of results but not suspended for testing positive for the drug Meldonium, which was newly added to the WADA prohibited substance list this year.
Trofimov was stripped of his 52nd place on stage 7 of Paris-Nice and 104th on the opening stage of the Volta a Catalunya after testing positive on February 23.
His compatriot Sergey Shilov was disqualified from the Vuelta Ciclista a La Rioja, and two Polish para-cycling athletes were stripped of results from the track world championships in March, all for Meldonium positives early in the season.
WADA agreed to offer limited amnesty for Meldonium positives after it was shown that the drug could remain in the system of athletes who had taken it prior to the first of the year.
Katusha's Eduard Vorganov was provisionally suspended for a Meldonium positive in January, but had his suspension lifted by the UCI in May.
Turgot moves from AG2R La Mondiale to amateur team in 2017
32-year-old Sébastien Turgot will race with the amateur French team l'US Saint-Herblain in 2017 after three seasons with AG2R La Mondiale, DirectVelo reported today.
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Turgot was the runner-up in the 2012 Paris-Roubaix, and was eighth in the Tour of Flanders, but has since not been able to improve upon his promise in the Classics.
Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet earned another award, this time the Vlaamse Reus, the award for top Flemish athlete, awarded by the Flemish Association of Sports Journalists.
Van Avermaet was already named Flandrien of the year by Het Nieuwsblad for the fifth time, and won his third straight Kristallen Fiets by Het Laatste Nieuws this year.
The BMC Racing rider topped swimmer Pieter Timmers and decathlete Thomas Van der Plaetsen to win the prize.
No doping positives at the Vuelta
None of the anti-doping tests conducted at the 2016 Vuelta a España returned positives, according to a Friday press release from organiser Unipublic.
"The CADF (Cycling Anti-Doping Foudation) has informed the Vuelta organisation that all the anti-doping tests that were carried out during and prior to the competition, more than 400 in total, came back negative," read the release.
"The 2016 Vuelta controls started on Thursday the 18th of August, and ended on Sunday the 11th of September 2016. We are pleased to inform that there were no positive results."
Samples can be kept for a period of 10 years to allow for future analysis as testing methods improve over time.
Iceland welcomed into the UCI
UCI president Brian Cookson welcomed representatives from Iceland to the UCI at its headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland today.
Iceland is one of four national federations added to the International Cycling Union in 2015 along with Kosovo, Mauritania and Vanuatu
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