Cycling doping cases fell again in 2025, but MPCC warns the real risks are shifting

In its latest Credibility Figures, the MPCC reports 20 confirmed doping cases among professional riders in 2025. That marks a continued drop from 29 public cases in 2022 and strengthens the sense that cycling has moved away from the darkest chapters of its past.

On the global stage, cycling ranked only tenth in the total number of doping and sports fraud cases last year. Athletics led the list with 163 cases, followed by weightlifting with 63 and tennis with 46, including 27 linked to sports fraud. For a discipline once seen as the weak link in elite sport, the shift is notable.

The MPCC nonetheless tempers any celebration. “This assessment shows that our sport is far from being among the most affected disciplines, but it must remain particularly cautious,” the organisation states. It argues that cycling must confront both the “significant development of certain medical practices known as ‘grey areas’ among the elite” and more conventional forms of doping, “particularly at Continental level”.

The MPCC also notes that, for the first time in two years, a World Tour rider was suspended after irregularities were detected in his biological passport, which it calls “one of the cornerstones of the fight against doping”. 

The organisation is referring to Oier Lazkano, who raced last season for Red Bull-BORA-Hansgrohe. The anomalies that led to the case are understood to relate to the 2022 to 2024 period, when the Spaniard was riding for Movistar.

Low numbers at the top tier, the organisation warns, should not be mistaken for a clean bill of health. “Although relatively few World Tour riders have tested positive in recent years, this does not mean that the elite of our sport is 100% clean,” it says. Instead, it questions the expanding medicalisation of the peloton.

The debate over “grey areas” is not new. Around a decade ago, Tramadol was widely used in the bunch and considered permissible because it eased pain. The MPCC opposed its use, and the substance was eventually banned, a decision it calls beneficial “for the good of our sport and the health of the riders”. More recently, the movement has criticised the use of ketones and the widespread reliance on painkillers, warning of potential consequences for riders’ mental health.

It also highlights regulatory progress. Tramadol was added to the prohibited list of the World Anti Doping Agency, and repeated carbon monoxide inhalation was first banned by the UCI in February 2025 before WADA extended the prohibition to all sports from 2026.

Where the MPCC sees the sharpest danger is further down the ladder. Of the 20 professional cases in 2025, nine occurred at Continental level, effectively cycling’s third division. The MPCC also points to several dozen cases at amateur level, including 25 riders in Colombia who were serving bans or provisional suspensions by mid December 2025, more than half from amateur or semi professional teams.