After fending off the relentless Schleck brothers attacks then dropping everyone to solo to a massive victory on Stage 16 of the 2009 Tour de France, the UCI became suspicious.
And those suspicions proved founded after Euskaltel-Euskadi’s Spanish rider Mikel Astarloza tested positive for EPO, the UCI claims.  He has been provisionally suspended, but he’ll likely appeal and has the right to be present for the testing of his “B” samples.
See how it all went down in our recap of Stage 16 here, and hit ‘more’ to see a video interview with Astarloza after Stage 16…