Italian cyclist Luca Paolini has been banned for 18 months after testing positive to cocaine during last year's Tour de France.
The International Cycling Union's (UCI) anti-doping tribunal on Wednesday found the rider guilty of `non-intentional' consumption of benzoylecgonine, a cocaine metabolite, which prompted the sanction.
The 39-year-old Katusha rider had been provisionally suspended by the UCI over the failed test.
Cocaine is a stimulant that is banned in competition.
Paolini won a stage on the Giro d'Italia in 2013 and another on the Vuelta in 2006 and was one of the lieutenants of top sprinter Alexander Kristoff of Norway on the Tour de France last year.
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