Fourth Spanish cyclist suspended for doping

MADRID – Spanish cyclist Margarita Fullana admitted to doping Saturday after the International Cycling Union revealed that a sample of her urine contained the banned substance EPO.

Fullana said on her website that she had given a positive result in an out-of-competition test in Canada in September. She acknowledged she had committed a ‘stupid’ act and said she would ‘accept my sanction and turn the page’.
‘Nothing was working out for me and I had the damned chance to get hold of this substance but in such a small quantity that it made no difference,’ Fullana said. ‘I did not improve and my world championship race went like all the others: badly, horrendously.
‘I have been stupid, but I am brave enough to recognise it. I have spent so many years working to build a sporting career and now, through one error that I have made, I have put my foot in it.’
Fullana won the cross-country cycling bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was a three-time winner at the Mountain Bike World Championships.
The 38-year-old becomes the fourth Spaniard this week to be provisionally suspended after the UCI reported that three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador had tested positive for clenbuterol, while Spanish Vuelta runner-up Ezequiel Mosquera and teammate David Garcia da Pena gave positive tests for hydroxyethyl starch. -Nampa-AP