The Russian pair of Egor Silin and Yuri Trofimov have been removed from Katusha’s Vuelta line-up following an incident in Rio after the recent Olympics test event.

According to Sporza, the duo turned up very drunk at Rio airport for their flight back to Europe. The duo are to be replaced on the team by Gatis Smukulis and Tiago Machado.

This news follows on from the recent announcement that Giampaolo Caruso had tested positive for EPO. Caruso’s sample had been taken back in March 2012, in an out-of-competition test between Paris-Nice and the Tour of the Basque Country.

It has been a very difficult season for the Russian team, as Luca Paolini tested positive for cocaine during the Tour de France.

Following Caruso’s positive, there had been questions about whether the entire team should be suspended. However, the UCI announced that they would not be suspended “the non-retroactivity of law principle” whereby they would not retroactively apply a regulation that was only introduced this year.

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