Nikita Novikov has been provisionally suspended by the UCI after a positive for ostarine in the A sample of an out-of-competition test taken on the 17th of May.
The exact product the Russian tested positive for is Hydroxy-ostarine, also known as O-Dephenyl-ostarine, a product promoting muscle growth that’s still in clinical trials. Novikov’s team Vacansoleil-DCM has also suspended the rider, and will dismiss him if the B sample confirms the positive or if the 22-year-old accepts the result of the A sample.
Team manager Daan Luijkx was very disappointed: “At the end of 2011 we hired this young talent for two years. Since that time he didn’t manage to reach his old level in our environment despite all the efforts of our team. It needs no clarification that as a team we are devastated by this.”
“As a team you try to give your riders a safe environment with good coaching and staff and that makes it very disappointing when a rider does something wrong, like it appears this is the case now. When I talked to the rider last night, after the UCI informed us, he said he had no idea how the substance got in his body.”
Luijkx added: “I strongly believe the sport is on his way up and I am sorry for the sport that this happens but it is good that possible breaches of the rules are traced.”
With their two main sponsors Vacansoleil and DCM stopping at the end of the year, this doping case certainly won’t help the Dutch team in their search for new sponsors.
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