The Russian WorldTour squad, Katusha, has been rocked by another doping scandal.
Denis Galimzyanov, 25, has been provisionally suspended by his team following a positive test for EPO.
Galimzyanov, overall winner of the green points jersey in last year’s Tour of Beijing and victor on stage five, gave a positive sample in an out-of-competition test last month.
His suspension follows the reinstatement of team-mate, Alexandr Kolobnev, after the UCI lost an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
In a statement issued on the UCI’s website, a spokesman for the governing body said: “The UCI advised Russian rider Denis Galimzyanov that he is provisionally suspended.
“The decision to provisionally suspend this rider was made in response to a report from the WADA accredited laboratory in Cologne indicating an Adverse Analytical Finding of EPO in a urine sample collected from him in an out of competition test on 22 March 2012.
“The provisional suspension of Mr Galimzyanov remains in force until a hearing panel convened by the Russian Cycling Federation determines whether he has committed an anti-doping rule violation under Article 21 of the UCI Anti-Doping Rules.
“Mr Galimzyanov has the right to request and attend the analysis of his B sample.”
Galimzyanov won the opening stage of the Circuit de la Sarthe on April 3 , a UCI 2.1 race, and was second on the final stage of the Tour of Qatar behind Arnaud Démare (FDJ-Big Mat).
Last year, he won the Paris-Brussles semi-classic, and the second stage of the Three Days of De Panne.
Galizmyanov’s team-mate Kolobnev left Katusha last year after giving a positive sample for hydrochlorothiazide before the fifth stage of the 2011 Tour De France.
But in March, a CAS panel upheld Kolobnev’s defence that the sample came from prescription medication for a chronic vascular disease, and he was subsequently reinstated by Katusha.
