Four year doping ban for Maria Luisa Calle

Having tested positive for GHRP2 at the Pan American Games in Toronto in July 2015, the UCI have announced a four-year sanction for Colombian Maria Luisa Calle. The ban is back dated to July 18, the date of a post-competition test in which Calle returned a non-negative result.

The 46-year-old was due to defend her time trial title having earlier finished fourth in the women's team pursuit at the games. Calle's ban extends to July 18, 2019. 

The Federación Colombiana de Ciclismo released a statement regarding the UCI's confirmation of the ban.

"The Colombian Cycling Federation, headed by its president Agustin Moreno Aristizabal, general manager Jorge Ovidio Gonzalez, the executive committee and its officials lament the impasse and the sad end of a career with successes and joys," read the statement. 

Calle won the 2006 scratch world title in Bordeaux, finishing second a year later in Palma de Mallorca, and has six Pan Am medals to her name. She has also won three Central American and Caribbean Games gold medals and two medals at the South American Games. On the road, Calle has won three national time trial and a road race title on her palmares.

A bronze medallist in the points race at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Calle was forced to return her medal having tested positive for heptaminol. The test would be proven to be incorrect and the medal as returned. 

The Colombian was one of two cyclists to return an adverse analytical finding at the Pan Am Games with Chilean Carlos Oyarzun testing positive for FG4592 (Roxadustat). Oyarzun, who rode for Movistar in 2011 and started the Giro d'Italia in that year, requested the counter-analysis of his B sample and remains on the UCI's provisionally suspended list.

Mónica Calderón was also handed a sanction by the UCI for a positive test for Clostebol at last year's Vuelta Internacional Femenina a Costa Rica. The 29-year-old received a one-year ban that expires on June 12.