Even though it was announced in late February that Partik Sinkewitz will serve an eight year ban due to the anti-doping rule violation following the verdict of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the German cyclist was expected to participate in the 2.2 ranked Istrian Spring Trophy as the race organizers had cleared him from allegations. However, in a statement released yesterday UCI have confirmed that the Meridiana Kamen Team rider won’t be allowed to take part in the Croatian event, held from March 13th.

The German cyclist, most recently riding for Continental level team Meridiana Kamen, underwent a doping control on 27 February 2011 during his participation in Grand Prix Lugano, and both A and B samples revealed a presence of recombinant growth hormone (recGH). As Sinkewitz had already served a one-year suspension for an anti-doping rule violation in 2007, the German Anti-doping Agency requested a period of ineligibility of no less then eight years, what practically means the end of a professional career for the 33-year old rider.

Sinkewitz decided to file an appeal after CAS had ruled in favor of Estonian cross country skier Andrus Veerpalu in a similar case one year ago, but this time a verdict wasn’t in favour of an athlete and the German become suspended from competition for 8 years.

Sinkewitz already served one year, three months and four days of a voluntary suspension, however, he was recently racing and achieved some noticeable result while finishing runner up to Jose Serpa (Lampre-Merida) in the Trofeo Laigueglia last week, just three days before the final verdict was announced.

As a consequence, despite of being cleared by the organizers of the Croatian race, Sinkewitz won’t be allowed to participate again. The full UCI statement on that case goes as follows:

"As Patrik Sinkewitz was suspended for eight years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport following its decision of 24th February 2014 for the presence of recombinant growth hormone (recGH) in a urine sample collected on 27th February 2011 during the Grand Prix de Lugano, the rider from the UCI Continental Team Meridiana Kamen Team, was today forbidden to take the start of the Istarsko proljece – Istrian Spring Trophy, a race on the UCI Europe Tour calendar."

Sinkewitz joined Meridiana-Kamen in 2012, after two years on the Farnese Vini team. Last season he took two stage wins, the point’s and mountain’s classification, and the overall classification at the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda.