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Carlos Oyarzun given four-year ban for FG-4592 positive

published 27 August 2016

Chilean rider given suspension after positive at 2015 Pan American Games

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Carlos Oyarzun (Chile) en route to fourth place. (Image credit: Luis Barbosa)

Carlos Oyarzun has been handed a four-year suspension by the UCI following a positive test for FG-4592 at the 2015 Pan American Games. Over a year after Oyarzun was provisionally suspended, the UCI confirmed that he would serve a ban.

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"The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announces that the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal has rendered its decision in the case involving Carlos Oyarzun," a statement on the UCI's website read. "The Anti-Doping Tribunal found the rider guilty of an anti-doping rule violation (Use of a prohibited substance) and imposed a 4-year period of ineligibility on the rider."

Oyarzun, who won the time trial event, was one of two riders to produce positive samples at the Pan American Games. Colombia's Maria Luisa Calle returned an adverse analytical finding for the growth hormone stimulant GHRP2. She was also handed a four-year suspension in March of this year.

Oyarzun is only the second cyclist to be banned from racing for taking FG-4592. Italian rider Fabio Taborre also tested positive for the drug in July of last year and was handed a four-year suspension this May.

FG-4592, which is also known as Roxadustat, is a blood-boosting drug that looks to stimulate the body's natural production of EPO and can be taken in tablet form. Although not available on the open market at the time, WADA added it to their list of banned substances. French race walker Bertrand Moulinet was one of the first to test positive for the substance in March 2015.

Chilean rider Oyarzun is a two-time Pan American champion, once in the road race in 2010 and once in the time trial, in 2013. He has spent the past two seasons racing for the Croatian Continental team Keith Mobel-Partisan. The 34-year-old also spent a year on the Movistar team in 2011 and during that time made his one and only Grand Tour appearance at the Giro d'Italia.