The MPCC has published a new update on professional cyclists who have been suspended to date. This overview highlights the situation at the Continental level, which is the level of competition most affected by doping cases.
Intended to be an add to the Credibility Figures, this overview of professional athletes suspended to date provides a broad picture of the state of the fight against doping in our sport, worldwide and by discipline. It also illustrates the efforts and actions undertaken by the various institutions responsible for ensuring the credibility of competitions, whether they be national federations or national anti-doping agencies. This inventory is divided into several categories: cases by country, by level of road competition, by discipline, by products detected during testing, by suspension end date, and by gender.
After counting 75 professional cyclists serving bans for anti-doping rule violations at the end of August 2024, we now have 68 athletes banned from all competition as of 31 August 2025. Colombia remains the most represented nation in this list with 12 riders suspended, closely followed by Portugal (11), and Italy (7). It should be noted that, in Portugal, five riders involved in Operation « Prova Limpa » and sanctioned by the Portuguese Anti-Doping Agency (Adop) served their suspensions last July. However, the advanced age of most of them is unlikely to allow them to find an other competitive team at the highest levels of sport. On the other hand, a number of riders, caught out by their biological passports, which have been extended to continental teams by joint decision of the Portuguese Federation and the Adop in 2023, remain provisionally suspended and are therefore awaiting a final sanction.
Reveal – Blow the whistle
The Continental level remains the most affected
The biological passport, in use since 1 January 2008, a few months after the MPCC was founded, has been an important tool in the fight against cheating, but its scope is limited as it is only mandatory for World Teams and Pro Series teams. In fact, 65% of those suspended are from the men’s and women’s Continental level, an increase of 14 percentage points compared to September 2024. This increase is a trend already described in our previous Credibility Figures, where doping cases at this level remain frequent.
EPO tops the list of detected substances
Since 2021, the most frequent cases of doping in cycling reported by the MPCC have involved both Continental-level riders and positive tests for EPO or its variant, EPO Cera. This hormone, which one might think had fallen out of favour a quarter of a century after the Festina case, remains the leading cause of suspension for 43% of banned athletes. One fact illustrates this trend : three of the last six professional riders sanctioned by the UCI tested positive for EPO or Cera and were riding for Continental-level teams. The use of steroids ranks second among the substances detected in 19% of cases. Finally, the term « use and possession of prohibited substances and/or methods » accounts for 19% of current suspensions, but can sometimes correspond to a rider’s biological passport failing, which officially accounts for only 7% of sanctions.
The average length of suspension (except lifetime bans) remains at four and a half years, which is roughly in line with the penalty scale for the use of methods and/or substances prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Finally, 88% of athletes sanctioned are men, compared to 12% for women.
Keeping the light on
These figures require some clarification:
– Six suspended riders were riding at the World Tour level when they tested positive, as in 2024, but four of them are serving a lifeban.
– The number of athletes whose suspension end dates fall between 2026 and 2028 has increased significantly since our first publication, but due to our methodology, which only counts ongoing sanctions, except the provisional suspensions. Some riders were notified between 2022 and 2024 but have only recently been suspended, sometimes because of lengthy legal proceedings (analysis of B samples, appeals, second-opinions, etc.).
– To date, no cyclist has been sanctioned under the ‘retesting’ system, which involves re-analysing samples stored for up to 10 years.
These figures provide a perspective, in time and space, of the fight against doping waged by the MPCC, the UCI and the teams. Although the figures may seem dry, they are nevertheless one of the keys to detecting cheating, a task entrusted to the International Testing Agency (ITA), which does difficult and necessary work for our sport. These figures remind us that each and every one of us must play an active role in the fight against doping.
