The UCI announced that it has imposed a four-year ban on Kanstantin Siutsou after he tested positive for the banned blood-thinning agent erythropoietin (EPO).

The UCI revealed in September 2018 that Siutsou's test was "planned and conducted by the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation"; after a lengthy trial through the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal, Siutsou was given a four-year suspension. The suspension will last until September 4, 2022. The 36-year-old Belarusian, based in Italy, ran for Bahrain-Merida in 2018 and was a key domestique in Vincenzo Nibali's Grand Tour (opens in new tab). 2017 for Dimension Data and from 2012 to 2015 for Team Sky. He was a member of.

Siutsoo was selected to represent Bahrain-Merida at the Giro d'Italia in 2018, but fractured a vertebra in his neck while training on the course of the opening time trial in Jerusalem. The Bahrain-Merida team released a brief statement in September 2018, revealing that Siutu was told in June that his contract would not be renewed. He officially retired at the end of 2018. EPO was widely used and abused in the 1990s until the introduction of urine anti-doping testing in 2001 and the UCI's creation of the Biological Passport in 2008. However, experts have long believed that trace amounts of EPO and other drugs can benefit performance without triggering biological passport violations.

UCI has stated that it will publish details of its decision on the UCI website.