Astana Development Team rider handed four-year ban for CERA positives

The UCI has announced that Astana development team rider Ilkhan Dostiyev has been handed a four-year racing ban after testing positive for the blood booster CERA.

22-year-old Dostiyev moved to the WorldTour teams Continental-level squad last year from Kazakhstani squad Vino SKO. He'd go on to finish second at the Tour du Rwanda and the Giro della Valle d'Aosta before winning the 2.2-ranked Turul Romaniei stage race in August.

However, the news broke in mid-September that Dostiyev had tested positive for Methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta – CERA, sold under the trade name Mircera by Roche Pharmaceuticals – an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent similar to EPO.

The UCI announced that "intelligence-led" targeted testing of Dostiyev was carried out. He'd test positive for CERA in an out-of-competition test on July 30, nine days after the Giro della Valle d'Aosta, where he also took a mountain stage victory and won the points classification.

Another positive test followed at the Turul Romaniei, where he topped the podium ahead of teammate Davide Toneatti. The test was carried out on August 17, the penultimate day of the five-stage race.

Dostiyev, who finished his season in August after racing the Tour de Hainan as part of Astana's WorldTour squad, was fired by the team last September. His ban dates from September 9, 2024 and will run to September 8, 2028, the UCI stated.

"The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announces that Kazakh rider Ilkhan Dostiyev has been sanctioned with a period of ineligibility of four years following an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) for the presence of Methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta (CERA)1 in two samples collected – as a result of intelligence-led testing – out-of-competition on 30 July 2024 and in-competition on 17 August 2024 during the Turul Romaniei (Tour of Romania)," the UCI announced.

"In accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code (the Code) and the UCI Anti-Doping Rules (UCI ADR), the period of ineligibility started on 9 September 2024 and will remain in force until 8 September 2028.

"The case has been resolved by way of an acceptance of consequences as provided for by the Code and the UCI ADR. The UCI will not comment any further."

CERA is a drug in the family of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents which stimulates new red blood cell growth. Its primary use comes in medical settings to treat anaemia caused by kidney disease, chemotherapy, HIV/AIDS, or major surgery.

Thanks to its ability to boost red blood cell growth, and with it oxygen-carrying ability, CERA emerged in professional cycling shortly around the same time it was approved for medical use by the European Medical Agency in July 2007.

However, in contrast to the years-long wait for a reliable EPO test, a test for CERA had been developed swiftly and quietly.

As a result, numerous top names – Saunier Duval riders Riccardo Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli, and Gerolsteiner riders Stefan Schumacher, Bernhard Kohl, and Davide Rebellin, Ceramica Panaria rider Emanuele Sella, and LPR Brakes rider Danilo Di Luca – were all caught using the drug in 2008 and 2009.

Thanks to the development of a reliable test, usage of the drug seemingly wouldn't hit the heights of the 1990s EPO era, though Dostiyev joins a small list of riders on the UCI sanctions list to have been banned for using CERA in recent years.

Other riders currently sanctioned for CERA positives include Colombian Luis Alberto Largo (who tested positive in 2017), Costa Rican Cesar Rojas (2017), Argentine Juan Pablo Dotti (2021), and Czech racer Daniel Vysočan (2024).