Uzbekistan cyclist Djamolidin Abdoujaparov is unlikely to race again at the highest level. The three-times winner of the sprinter's jersey in the Tour de France and a winner of nine stages, has been banned until July 12th this year and fined £1,500 for six separate doping offences. There is speculation that, at 34, he will not race again at the highest level.

Abdoujaparov was thrown off the Tour de France last year after his urine was found to contain the steroid clenbuterol - most commonly taken by weightlifters - and the stimulant bromantan, used by Soviet fighter pilots to improve their reactions.

A tribunal in Lausanne upheld an appeal from the International Cycling Union that the six-month ban imposed on Abdoujaparov by his home cycling federation was too lenient, and should be doubled. The squat, tree-trunk-thighed Uzbek tested positive at five other races between the end of March last year, and the Tour in July, including the Dauphine Libere, traditional build-up to the Tour, where he won two stages.

Abdoujaparov is known for his head-down, no-holds-barred style, which involves zig-zagging down finish straights on the very limits of safety to discourage rival sprinters from coming past. After he crashed spectacularly on the Champs Elysees in the final stage of the Tour de France, and was carried across the finish line on a stretcher, it always seemed likely that he would leave cycling in dramatic style, but a crash rather than a doping scandal was expected to put an end to his career.

Abdoujaparov's is the latest in a rash of doping stories to have hit cycling in recent days. Last week the Belgian Eddy Planckaert, a points winner in the Tour, confessed that he had used the banned blood booster erithropoetin (EPO), and a promising young French professional, Erwan Mentheour, told l'Equipe that he had taken drugs.

Although the Italian Olympic commission has absolved their Olympic women's mountain bike champion Paola Pezzo of using the steroid nandrolone, they have another case on their hands. A cocaine derivative was found in the urine of the world cyclo-cross champion Daniele Pontoni at the Italian national championship on January 11th and, like Pezzo, he is protesting his innocence. Pontoni is due to defend his world title in the Danish town of Middelfart on Sunday. He is hoping that a DNA test to prove whether or not he provided the urine sample in question will find in his favour before then.