Sebastian Salas is all smiles before going head-to-head against some of the world's best at the Klasika Primavera de Amorebieta(Image credit: Sam Wiebe)
Sebastian Salas(Image credit: Pat Malach)
Sebastian Salas (H&R Block) leading the pack into turn 1(Image credit: Doug Brons)
Sebastian Salas has been handed a two-year ban by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) for "tampering with the doping control" during in-competition testing at the Gastown Grand Prix in Vancouver, which took place on July 10, 2013.
The CCES announced on Monday that Salas’ two-year sanction will expire on August 1, 2015. Salas chose to accept the doping violation rather than seek a hearing.
“In response to the CCES’ notification of the violation, Mr. Salas fully explored his rights under the Canadian Anti-Doping Program (CADP) and eventually chose to admit the doping control violation, waive his right to a hearing, and accept a two-year sanction ending August 1, 2015,” read the CCES statement.
The 26-year-old Salas raced for Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies for the past two seasons, but was not re-signed to the team for 2014. The Vancouver resident’s best season came in 2012, when he was a surprise winner of the king of the mountains classification at the Tour of California, and also placed 6th overall at the Tour of the Gila and 9th at the Tour de Beauce.
The Optum Pro Cycling team issued the following statement to Cyclingnews regarding Salas' suspension:
"Sebastian Salas was indefinitely suspended by our team in July of 2013 and informed he would not return to our program for the 2014 season.
"Due to our team policy, he was suspended within 24 hours of his late arrival to an in-competition control at the Gastown Grand Prix. While Mr. Salas did not test positive for any banned substances and while we were never contacted by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), his being late to a test was unacceptable to our team and resulted in his termination.
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"Removing him from all 2013 rosters and excluding him from consideration for 2014 was the strongest course of action available to our organization. CCES has since concluded Mr. Salas was in breach of the rules. We fully support the actions of CCES as well as USADA and WADA in their continued efforts to protect clean sport."
