Four-year doping ban for Pantano

PARIS: Colombia’s Jarlinson Pantano has been banned for four years by cycling’s world governing body after testing positive for the blood booster EPO last year. Pantano, who won a stage on the 2016 Tour de France, failed an out-of-competition test in February 2019, shortly after racing in the Tour de Haut Var in southern France. The Trek-Segafredo rider was provisionally suspended in April 2019. Pantano, 31, was Colombia’s time-trial champion in 2017 and has also won stages at the Tour of Switzerland and the Tour of Catalonia. He announced last June that he was retiring from the sport.