Juan Carlos Dominguez (Unibet) was taken out of competition after revealing too high hematocrit levels in the morning of stage 5 of the Eneco Tour of Benelux on Monday. The Spaniard's blood test result exceeded the 50 percent threshold imposed by UCI rules, so the 35 year-old is not allowed to race for two weeks now. The blood controls were carried out on riders of the following teams: Davitamon, CSC, Quick Step, Lampre, Chocolade Jacques and Unibet.
Dominguez will now have to justify himself in front of his team directors, with Unibet applying for a ProTour license again this year. "We will not rule on Dominguez just now," team advisor Jacques Hanegraaf told Belgian media when confronted with the possibility that Dominguez could be using performance-enhancer EPO. "We will examine the situation internally."
