Italian cyclist Linda Laporta has been provisionally suspended in a doping case after testing positive for a banned substance during the UAE Tour Women, the International Testing Agency confirmed.<\/p>\n
The ITA said a sample collected February 5 during an \u201cintelligence-led testing\u201d mission at the WorldTour race revealed the presence of enobosarm, also known as ostarine, ITA officials said.<\/p>\n
Laporta, 26, rides for Vini Fantini-BePink, a continental-level squad based in Italy.<\/p>\n
A professional since 2024, she has yet to win a race. She recorded the adverse analytical finding during the UAE Tour Women, where she finished 50th overall.<\/p>\n
Under UCI anti-doping rules, a mandatory provisional suspension has already been imposed.<\/p>\n
The substance \u2014 a S1.2 class anabolic agent \u2014 is banned under WADA rules.<\/p>\n
According to ITA, ostarine has been shown to increase lean body mass and promote muscle growth, and can be used to treat muscle wasting and osteoporosis.<\/p>\n
This is a relatively rare doping case to hit the women\u2019s peloton.<\/p>\n
In 2025, of the 20 cases recorded among professional cyclists, only one came from a women\u2019s team, according to the MPCC.<\/p>\n
Laporta has been formally notified of the result and has the right to request analysis of her B-sample.<\/p>\n
If the B-sample confirms the initial finding, or if she declines, the case will proceed as a confirmed anti-doping rule violation, the ITA said.<\/p>\n
There was no immediate response from Laporta or her team.<\/p>\n
Since 2026, the ITA has been running the anti-doping program for the UCI.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/news\/womens-racing-rocked-doping-case-italian-cyclist-tests-positive\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-173067411-1.jpg”] Andrew Hood Published March 22, 2026 04:17PM Italian cyclist Linda Laporta has been provisionally suspended in a doping case after testing positive for a banned substance during the UAE Tour Women, the International Testing Agency confirmed. The ITA said a sample collected February 5 during an \u201cintelligence-led testing\u201d mission at the WorldTour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1843272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1843272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1843272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1843272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1843272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}