Swiss cyclist fails drug test

Roland Meier has five days to appeal against the findings Keystone

Swiss pro cyclist Roland Meier has failed a newly introduced drugs test aimed at detecting the stamina-boosting substance, EPO.

The 33-year-old rider from Zurich tested positive for the drug after completing last month’s one-day Flèche-Wallonne classic. His urine sample was analysed at the University of Lausanne laboratory, one of the few scientific centres equipped to carry out the new test.

Meier has five days to appeal against the results of the test, using a second sample, taken at the same time as the first. If that too is positive Meier is likely to face a ban of between six and 12 months.

Meier’s employers at Team Coast said it would not be commenting until it received official notification of the positive test. That, though, may take some time since the rules on doping demand only that the individual rider be informed and not his team.

Meier turned professional in 1993 and faced a difficult start to his career when his first employers, TVM, failed to meet all their financial obligations. In 1996 he moved to the PMU Romand team and has subsequently raced for the Post Swiss Team, Cofidis and Team Coast.

In eight years on the professional circuit, Meier has celebrated seven victories, all of them in Switzerland.

The Swiss rider is the second cyclist to be tested positive by the University of Lausanne this month. Last week Denmark’s Bo Hamburger also failed the EPO test after giving a sample the day after the Flèche-Wallonne race.

The International Cycling Union only agreed in April to introduce the urine test for EPO, which stimulates the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells.

A simultaneous blood and urine test had previously been adopted by the International Olympic Committee in time for last year’s Sydney Olympics. EPO first hit the headlines when the substance was found in a series of police raids during the 1998 Tour de France.

swissinfo with agencies