Skip to content

Sánchez Tests Positive for GHRP-2 In Out-of-Competition Control

samuel sanchez
Samuel Sánchez tries on his new Oakley eyewear and BMC Racing Team Giro helmet. (©BMC/Wouter Roosenboom.)

The UCI has released a statement on an Adverse Analytical Finding for BMC rider Samual Sánchez Gonzalez. The 2008 Olympic road race winner tested positive in an out-of-competition control for a GHRP-2, or growth hormone-releasing peptide. GHRP-2’s stimulate the production of growth hormone within the body.

Sánchez has the right to attend and have the B sample tested. In the mean time, he has been suspended by BMC, and the team will wait for the B sample results to take further action. Sánchez was slated to ride in the upcoming Vuelta a Espana, but has been replaced by Loïc Vliegen.

Sánchez’s contract with BMC expires at the end of 2017 and he has yet to announce future plans for his career until after the Vuelta.

The full UCI press release follows below.


Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announces that Spanish rider Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez was notified of an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) of GHRP-2* in a sample collected in the scope of out-of-competition control on 9 August 2017.

The doping control was planned and carried out by the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF), the independent body mandated by the UCI, in charge of defining and implementing the anti-doping strategy in cycling.

The rider has the right to request and attend the analysis of the B sample.

In accordance with UCI Anti-Doping Rules, the rider has been provisionally suspended until the adjudication of the affair.

At this stage of the procedure, the UCI will not comment any further on any of these matters.

(*) GH-Releasing Peptides (GHRPs) are classified as “Peptide Hormones, Growth Factors, Related Substances and Mimetics” as per the World Anti-Doping Prohibited List 2017.

Bike World News