 Heras rides at the ’05 Vuelta – pic by Richard Wilson |
The Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) has announced today that they have suspended Roberto Heras (Liberty Seguros-Würth) for two years after his positive doping test for EPO at the 2005 Vuelta a España.
Speaking to the Spanish press The general secretary of the RFEC, Eugenio Bermudez, said:
“What we did was just to fulfil our commitment to apply the rules. It’s not a positive or nice matter for sport or cycling but we applied the current rules”.
His failed test was after the 38.9 km time trial between Guadalajara and Alcala de Henares. He finished second behind Ruben Plaza by just 0.5 seconds. Plaza beat (Sean Yates’?) record for a long individual time trial during a Grand Tour of 56.218 km/h (average).
Denis Menchov (Rabobank) will now be the 2005 Vuelta a España champion, Heras will retain his three previous victories (2000, 2003 and 2004)
Roberto still claims that he is innocent and he will appeal his ban to the CAS (Court for Arbitration in Sport).
