The National Court in Spain has decided in favour of Ezequiel Mosquera and have annulled his two-year suspension. The Spaniard had been banned after he tested positive for hydroxyethyl starch at the 2010 Vuelta a Espana where he finished second overall.
The Spanish judicial system has made a decision in the Ezequiel Mosquera case. Biciciclismo reports that the Sixth Section of the Division of Administrative Litigation under the National Court upheld Mosquera's appeal against the decision of the Spanish Disciplinary Committee for Sports (February 24 2012), declaring the sanction to be void.
Interviewed by EFE, Mosquera claims to be "fatigued and tired of a process that, with the law in hand, should never have happened."
Shortly after finishing second in the 2010 Vuelta while riding for Xacobeo Galicia, 41 seconds behind winner Vincenzo Nibali, the International Cycling Union (UCI) announced that an adverse analytical for the presence of hydroxyetyl starch was detected in a doping test from the Spanish race. After seven months, the UCI sent the case to the Spanish Federation who made their decision in November 2011, handing Mosquera a two-year suspension that expired in August 2013. As a consequence, Mosquera never got the chance to ride for Vacansoleil.
Before the end of the 2010 Vuelta, Mosquera signed with the Dutch WorldTour team but he never wore their colours in a race. The Spanish rider appealed to the Spanish Disciplinary Committee for Sportswhich ratified its two-year ban. In March 2012, he announced his retirement, but he continued the fight to prove his innocence and appealed the case to the ordinary courts. More than four years after the test, he has been acquitted but it is too late to resume his career.
Mosquera who is now 39 years old, earned his best results in the Vuelta where he was fifth in 2007 and 2009, fourth in 2008 and second in 2010 (when he won the La Bola del Mundo stage). He will no longer be stripped from the latter result. He rode for Paredes (1999-2002), Cantanhede (2003), Boavista (2004), Kaiku (2005), Valencia (2006), Karpin Galicia / Xacobeo Galicia (2007-2010) and Vacansoleil (2011) during his career.
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