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Rogers avoids ban despite positive steroid test

Cyclist will face no further action over result

Australian cyclist Michael Rogers will face no further action over a positive test for clenbuterol he delivered at a race in Japan last October.

The 34-year-old former Team Sky rider, now with Alberto Contador’s Tinkoff-Saxo squad, was provisionally suspended after testing positive for the steroid.

But the International Cycling Union said in a statement yesterday it accepted that he ingested the substance via contaminated meat at the preceding Tour of Beijing.

“Upon careful analysis of Mr Rogers’ explanations and the accompanying technical reports the UCI found that that there was a significant probability that the presence of clenbuterol may have resulted from the consumption of contaminated meat from China — where he had taken part in a race before travelling to Japan,” a UCI statement said.

“As a result, the UCI has proceeded with the automatic disqualification of Mr Rogers’s results at the 2013 Japan Cup Cycle Road Race (the competition during which the positive sample was taken) but, after consulting World Anti Doping Agency (Wada), decided that he should not be sanctioned any further.”

Rogers’ team-mate Contador tested positive for clenbuterol in July 2010.

His explanation that he had eaten contaminated meat was initially accepted but he was later banned for two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport and stripped of his 2010 Tour de France win.

Contador made his return to the Tour last summer with Rogers as his chief lieutenant on the road.

Wada issued a warning to athletes in 2011, telling them to only eat in approved restaurants and cafeterias when competing in China and Mexico due to contamination cases in those countries.

In the lead-up to the 2012 Olympics, Chinese Olympic rower Huang Wenyi used her blog to reveal that Chinese athletes had been banned from eating pork due to fears over the meat.

Wednesday’s UCI statement added: “The UCI is monitoring very carefully the latest developments concerning clenbuterol and will continue to take appropriate steps to ensure riders are properly informed.”

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