Former Giro d’Italia stage winner banned four years for doping

Kanstantsin Siutsou has been banned from four years for doping. (Bryn Lennon/Pool Photo via AP)

AIGLE, Switzerland — Former Giro d’Italia stage winner Kanstantsin Siutsou was banned for four years by the International Cycling Union on Tuesday after he tested positive for EPO.

Siutsou was aged 35 and a member of the Bahrain-Merida team when he gave his July 2018 sample while training. He retired that year.

Siutsou had two top-10 overall finishes at the Giro and won a stage in the 2009 edition.

As a highly rated support rider in stage races, he was signed by Team Sky from 2012-15 and Bahrain-Merida in 2017.

Siutsou represented Belarus at the Olympics in 2008 and 2016 and completed both road races without winning a medal. He was the under-23 road race world champion in 2004.

The UCI said it would publish details at a later date of him being caught with the banned blood-boosting hormone.

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