Astana rider Maxim Iglinskiy provisionally suspended after testing positive for EPO

Kazakh rider Maxim Iglinskiy has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for the banned blood-booster EPO.

The 33-year-old failed a doping control on August 1, five days after the last stage of the Tour de France, where he helped Astana team-mate Vincenzo Nibali claim overall victory.

The news comes just three weeks after his brother Valentin was sacked by Astana for admitting to using EPO, having tested positive for the drug on August 11.

Both Astana and Maxim Iglinskiy are now awaiting the result of a test of the rider's B sample. Should that also be positive, Astana will come under pressure to temporarily withdraw from racing under the rules of the Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC), a group of teams committed to clean cycling, of which they are a member.

MPCC rules state that any member team who return two positive doping controls within 12 months must automatically suspend themselves for eight days, with the suspension starting on the opening day of the next UCI WorldTour race.

Voluntary suspension

An MPCC statement said: "This approach does, however, apply only after the result of the counter-analysis [B sample], if the rider requests it. MPCC has specifically asked the Astana team to hear its rider Maxim Iglinskiy, in order to know if he makes a confession or requests counter-analysis."

Of Iglinskiy's positive A sample, Astana team manager Alexandre Vinokourov said: “All Astana Pro Team riders are contractually obliged to respect strict ethical rules and regulations. We will not tolerate any indulgences by any one entity, person or structure that violates these rules.

“I am very disappointed and angered that this rider could not have understood the basis of our rules and the importance of our ethics. It is especially unacceptable on the part of a Kazakh rider who stands for the image of our team and the image of our country.”

Iglinskiy won stages of the Criterium du Dauphine and Tour de Romandie earlier in his career, but his biggest victory was in the 2012 edition of the Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day Classic.