Blaža Klemenčič has received a two-year doping ban ©Getty Images

Slovenian mountain biker Blaža Klemenčič has become the 45th athlete to be disqualified from the London 2012 Olympic Games for doping after being handed a two-year ban by the International Cycling Union (UCI).

Reanalysis last year of a sample submitted by the 36-year-old in March 2012 showed traces of erythropoietin (EPO), the drug notorious among endurance athletes which illegally enhances the body's ability to produce red blood cells.

She was provisionally suspended last September with the final verdict having now been confirmed by the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal.

"The matter resulted from the reanalysis of a sample provided by Blaža Klemenčič in the scope of an out-of-competition control on 27 March 2012, which revealed the presence of Recombinant Erythropoietin," the world governing body said in a statement.

"The Anti-Doping Tribunal found the rider guilty of an anti-doping rule violation and imposed a two-year period of ineligibility on the rider.

"Moreover, the results obtained by the rider from 27 March 2012 to 31 December 2012 are disqualified, whilst all other results shall stand."

Klemenčič represented Slovenia at both Beijing 2008 and London 2012, finishing 21st and 23rd respectively.

She claimed marathon bronze and silver medals at the 2004 and 2005 World Mountain Bike Championships as well as the 2004 European title.

She also claimed European silver in the Olympic cross country event in 2014.

Blaža Klemenčič failed for EPO - a drug notorious for its usage among cyclists and other endurance athletes ©Getty Images
Blaža Klemenčič failed for EPO - a drug notorious for its usage among cyclists and other endurance athletes ©Getty Images

Athletes to be stripped of London 2012 results for doping include five medal winners - and two initial champions in Turkey's 1500 metres runner Aslı Çakır-Alptekin and Belarus' shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk.

Russia's silver medal winning discus thrower Darya Pishchalnikova, Uzbekistan's bronze medal winning wrestler Soslan Tigiev and the United States silver medal winning 4x100m relay team - due to Tyson Gay - also lost medals.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) have carried out more retests of samples from the Beijing and London Games, with the names of those implicated due to be announced soon.

"Cycling Association of Slovenia advocates zero tolerance to any kind of doping," said the body's President Tomaž Grm.

"We are sorry that this has happened.

"We met with the Slovenian Anti-Doping Organization and decided for further preventive steps."