CANBERRA, Sept 19: Australian cyclist Mark Roland has been given a two-year suspension for use of prohibited substances — without returning a positive result to any doping test.

The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency said on Friday that Roland, who competed professionally with the 2003 Giant Asia Racing Team and won a criterium in a Melbourne race in December 2003, was found in investigations to have used human growth hormone twice in 2003 and the anabolic steroid Dehydroepiandrosterone on three occasions in 2003 and 2004.

ASADA chairman Richard Ings said the case was significant because there was no positive test on which to base the sanction. Instead, it relied on evidence obtained by ASADA investigators.

The offences were committed during the eight-year statute of limitations period mandated in the World Anti-Doping Agency code.

“This sanction clearly illustrates that athletes do not need to return a positive test to be found to have violated anti-doping rules,” Ings said.

“In this case ASADA investigators, working in partnership with other government agencies, identified and prosecuted a serious doping violation that could not have been detected through normal testing procedures.”

Ings said Roland, 30, will forfeit all competition results from his first use of human growth hormone on Aug 27, 2003 until he last competed on April 25 of this year. He will be eligible to return to competition on April 24, 2010.—AP