The International Cycling Union has confirmed that there will be no penalty for Yuri Trofimov (who is currently at Tinkoff and joins Caja Rural - RGA in 2017), Sergey Shilov (Lokosphinx) and two Paralympians, Poles Marcin Polak and Michal Ladosz. The four athletes have tested positive for Meldonium, the drug which got a lot of attention when tennis player Maria Sharapova tested positive for the product in March 2016.

This lack of punishment is explained by the fact that the product, which is allowed to Russia but is banned in Europe and the United States, was only added to the list of banned drugs of the World Anti-Doping Agency on the 1st of January 2016. However, it has been proven that athletes who took the drug before that day could retain traces in the following months. Hence, it was possible to test positive for Meldonium in April 2016 even though the use of the product dated back to 2015, prior to the ban.

However, while the four riders involved are not punished, their results since the positive tests are canceled: For Yuri Trofimov, it includes his 49th place overall at Paris-Nice and his 54th place at the Volta a Catalunya. Sergey Shilov will losed his second place in the Tour of Rioja. Finally, Paralympians and Marcin Polak and Michal Ladosz will get stripped of their results from the World Para-cycling Championships on the track.

These positive controls should not be regarded as anti-doping rules violations and therefore another positive control for one of the four athletes will not be regarded as a second case.