The UCI disqualified Ukrainian athlete Mykhaylo Kononenko from the World Championships men's results after dried blood samples were found to contain tramadol and its two main metabolites.

The UCI revealed that 32 dried blood samples were collected as part of the tramadol program at the 2022 World Championships in Wollongong, Australia.

Kononenko, 35, has ridden for many Continental teams during his 16-year career, and in 2022 he was a member of Turkey's Sakarya BB Pro team, winning a stage and overall at the Tour of Sakarya. He finished 43rd in the elite men's road race in Wollongong and was part of the Ukrainian team that finished 12th in the team relay.

This powerful painkiller is not classified as a performance-enhancing drug, but has been banned by the UCI since March 2019.

Under the rules, athletes who test positive for this drug in a blood droplet test during a race will be disqualified from the event in which they are found positive and banned for five months for a second violation; WADA recently announced that tramadol will be a banned drug beginning in 2024.

Kononenko has 10 days to decide whether to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). He will know, however, that Nairo Quintana recently lost his appeal to CAS.

Colombian climber Nairo Quintana tested positive for tramadol twice at the Tour de France, and CAS ruled that the UCI's ban on tramadol competitions was for medical reasons, not for doping, and therefore within the UCI's authority and jurisdiction. .