Corti ‘shocked’ by Duenas Nevado’s positive test

BARLOWORLD have been swift to distance themselves from the positive EPO test returned by their Spanish rider, Moises Duenas Nevado.

Duenas Nevado, 27, has been withdrawn from the Tour de France by his team following raids by French police on their hotel in Tarbes. The French anti-doping agency reported that the rider’s A sample related to the fourth stage of the race, the Cholet time-trial on July 8. “I’m shocked,” Barloworld team manager Claudio Corti said.

“However the one thing I will say is that the team is not involved in this story at all.”

Duenas Nevado finished 82nd in the stage in question.

Duenas Nevado was in his third Tour de France, and first with Barloworld, following two years with Agritubel.

“After the testing of the Spanish rider, the gendarmes came and tested the Barloworld team.

“We could come and go without problem and we are not at all incriminated in this affair.”

Duenas Nevado’s transgression comes four days after another Spanish rider, Manuel Beltran, was found to have EPO in his system after the opening stage from Brest to Plumelec.