UCI bans Matzka and Da Silva Ramos

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The UCI has announced decisions in the cases involving Germany's Ralf Matzka (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Brasil's Kleber Da Silva Ramos (Funvic Soul Cycles – Carrefour). Both cases were heard separately before the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal.

The tribunal found Matzka guilty of an anti-doping rule violation for the presence of a metabolite of Tamoxifen, classified as selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), and imposed two-year period of ineligibility on the rider, according to a press release. His disqualification started on March 3, 2016, and will end on November 27, 2018.

Matzka returned the positive test on March 3, 2016. He did not race for Bora- Hansgrohe after the Tour of Flanders in April of that year and was not contracted to a team in 2017. According to reports, he believed that he was innocent. Team manager Ralph Denk released a statement in July 2017 saying that the positive test was likely due to contamination of water, and the team decided not to go public to protect the athlete. "On the basis of the experts' reports and all given facts at this point of time, the team expects a verdict of acquittal," he said in 2017.

The Anti-Doping Tribunal found Da Silva Ramos guilty of an anti-doping rule violation for the presence of CERA, classified as peptide hormones, growth factors, related substances and mimetics, and imposed a four-year period of ineligibility on the rider, according to the UCI's statement. His disqualification started on July 31, 2016, and will end on August 9, 2020.

Da Silva Ramos was provisionally suspended after failing an anti-doping test for the banned blood-boosting drug CERA on the eve of the Rio Olympics in 2016. The sample was taken during an out-of-competition control on July 31, six days before the men's road race on August 6.

In accordance with the Procedural Rules of the Anti-Doping Tribunal, both decisions will be published on the UCI website in due course.