Spanish rider Oscar Sevilla has been provisionally suspended by the International Cycling Union (UCI) after returning an Adverse Analytical Finding for the banned substance Hydroxyethyl at last month’s Vuelta a Colombia. The result was returned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited lab in Bogota, Colombia, on a sample collected on August 15th, the last day of the race.
Unable to find a team after the collapse of Rock Racing, where he had ridden for two years, Sevilla has been riding for the small South American team Indeportes Antioquia-Gobernación de Antioquia. He won the Vuelta Mexico in April, then finished second in the Vuelta a Colombia, where he returned the non-negative sample.
This is not Sevilla’s first brush with doping scandal, as he was one of the riders named in the documents from Operación Puerto as a client of controversial doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. He was removed from the Tour de France team, and then fired by the T-Mobile team, for whom he rode at the time, but has not as yet been sanctioned. He later signed for Spanish Professional Continental team Relax-Gam, before riding for Rock Racing in the United States for two years.
Sevilla has the right to have the B-sample analysed, and his suspension remains provisional until it is confirmed by the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC).