Argentinian rider Dotti tests positive for CERA at Road World Championships
39-year-old, previously banned for doping in 2011, finished 46th in time trial
The UCI has issued a provisional suspension to Argentinian rider Juan Pablo Dotti after the 39-year-old tested positive for CERA at the Road World Championships in Glasgow last month.
Dotti, who has raced for the Sindicato de Empleados Pùblicos of San Juan team since 2017, returned the positive test on August 11, the day of the individual time trial in Stirling.
He finished 46th from 77 finishers during the 47.8km race, crossing the line at 7:06 down on World Champion Remco Evenepoel.
The Argentinian Time Trial champion in 2019, Dotti was added to the UCI's list of provisionally suspended riders on September 26, joining the likes of Miguel Angel López and Robert Stannard on the short list of riders currently prevented from racing.
Dotti has already served a two-year doping ban in 2011 after testing positive for an anabolic agent and amphetamines at the Tulsa Tough stage race.
Per WADA guidelines, he is likely to face a four-year ban from competition, should his B-sample also return as positive.
Dotti's positive test for CERA (continuous erythropoietin receptor activator), a form of the synthetic red-blood cell-boosting drug EPO, is the first in cycling for several years, coming after a swathe of positives in South America between 2016 and 2018.
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In 2016, the Brazilian Funvic team was handed a team suspension after three riders tested positive for CERA within a five-month span of one another. The following year, Colombian U23 champion Róbinson López was banned following a positive test, while a dozen riders at the Vuelta a Costa Rica also received bans after testing positive.
In 2018, Uruguayan rider Ignacio Maldonado returned a CERA positive at the Vuelta a San Juan. Race winner Gonzalo Najar – racing for the same SEP San Juan team as Dotti – was handed a four-year ban after testing positive.
CERA hit the peloton in the late 2000s, with cases emerging in the peloton shortly after it was approved for public use in 2007 for the treatment of anaemia patients under the trade name Mircera, produced by Roche Pharmaceuticals.
The company had been cooperating with WADA during the drug's development process, however, giving testers a rare head start in the fight against doping. As a result, a number of high-profile riders returned positive tests for CERA in 2008 and 2009.
The 2008 Tour de France saw Saunier Duval riders Riccardo Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli test positive before Giro king of the mountains winner Emanuele Sella did so later in July in an out-of-competition test.
In 2009, Gerolsteiner riders Stefan Schumacher and the late Davide Rebellin were banned following positives at the 2008 Olympic Games, the latter stripped of his road race silver medal.
Later in the year, Danilo Di Luca was banned and stripped of his Giro second place after a pair of positive tests at the race, while Portuguese continental team Liberty Seguros had three of their riders – including race winner Nuno Ribeiro – test positive at that year's Volta a Portugal.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, she had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including CyclingWeekly and Rouleur. She writes and edits at Cyclingnews as well as running newsletter, social media, and how to watch campaigns.