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SA’s Impey cleared of doping charge










29 August 2014
Last updated at
10:09













South Africa’s Daryl Impey has been

cleared of doping 

and hopes to race in September’s World Championships.

Impey, the first African to wear the Tour de France

leader’s yellow jersey,

had

tested positive

for Probenecid.

But a hearing ruled he had taken the banned diuretic through a contaminated product bought at a pharmacist.

“I was confident in my defence and I’m thankful that I was given the chance to clear my name beyond any doubt,” the

Orica-GreenEdge rider, 29, said. 













Daryl Impey factfile

Born Johannesburg, December, 1984


Played football before taking up cycling in 1997 with his brother and dad


Signed his first professional contract in 2003 for the Microsoft Cycling Team


His best win to date has been the 2009 Tour of Turkey


Described wearing the yellow jersey at the 2013 Tour as “a dream realised”


The hearing, held in Johannesburg on Thursday, accepted Impey’s defence that a pharmacist had contaminated gel capsules with

Probenecid 

which can be used as a masking agent and is not a performance-enhancing drug.

Impey, who was forced to miss this year’s Tour de France, added: “I am hoping to return back to racing now, and hopefully compete before the World Championships in September.

“I re-iterate my stance against doping and I will continue to race clean throughout my career. Right now, I am just really happy that I can be a bike rider again and do what I love the most.”

Impey is expected to be back in action in the Canadian one-day races in Quebec and Montreal on 12 and 14 September.

The World Championships are being held in

Spain from 20-28 September.Â