Not long after the first race in Treviso in October last year, UCI suspended U23 rider Aurelien Duval. The season then went on without any doping cases until now. The A sample of the Szczepaniak brothers, who claimed the first two spot of the podium, were tested positive, therefore UCI provisionally suspended the brothers, Pawel and Karel.
I’m wondering why again U23 riders? One would think that there’s much more at stake in the elite category so there are more incentive for them to use drugs and yet there weren’t any doping cases this season. Or is this some sort of “investment” in order to secure a good contract with a major team for their first elite year? Both brothers signed contracts with Telenet-Fidea, though my guess is that that contract worth not much more than the paper it was written on.
