RusVelo has announced that it will not be on the start line for the Giro dell'Appennino on Sunday as a consequence of three of its riders testing positive for the asthma medication Fenoterol.
The Professional Continental team is a member of the MPCC (Mouvement Pour un Cyclisme Crédible), whose rules call for a four-week suspension in the case of three positive tests within a 24 month period.
In April, Valery Kaykov was provisionally suspended and sacked by the team after failing a test for the new fat-burning drug GW1516.
Rusvelo confirmed earlier this week that Andrey Solomennikov, Roman Maikin, and Artem Ovechkin all tested positive for Fenoterol after the Russian national championships in late June. The substance is banned for in-competition use by the World Anti-Doping Code.
The squad will not race on Sunday as "a sign of respect to other teams and according to rules of MPCC," it said in a statement released on Saturday evening.
A MPCC board meeting is now set to take place this week which will make a further ruling on RusVelo's participation in other races.
"By this announcement, the Rusvelo Team management reminds once again that the fundamental principle of the team's ideology is zero tolerance to doping," read the statement. "We are in support of clean cycling and fully committed to adhere to this stance in the future."
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