The 24-year-old was initially suspended by the International Cycling Union (UCI) last June after an adverse result for muscle growth agents hydroxy-ostarine and o-dephenyl-ostarine, although the ban has only just been confirmed by the Russian Anti Doping Agency (RUSADA).

In a statement posted on its website, RUSADA described how they "have taken the decision, on the basis of conclusions by the disciplinary anti-doping committee to disqualify the athlete Nikita Novikov for a breach of anti-doping rules."

Novikov was considered one of Russia's biggest hopes in the sport and, riding for the Itera-Katusha team, had won both the Tour de Slovaquie and Tour des Pays de Savoie in 2011 before a switch to the Dutch outfit Vacansoleil-DCM resulted in 14th place at last May's Tour du Nord Pas-de-Calais.

The ban will be backdated to when the test was recorded shortly after this result and will rule him out until June 6, 2015.

This follows similar two year bans being handed to road racers Elena Bocharnikova and Yana Bezrukova on Christmas Eve, before BMX rider Svetlana Khakui was hit with a sixth-month suspension last week.

Russia has an appalling recent doping record with a total of 32 Russians testing positive in 2013 in athletics alone...the last of which was European 5,000m champion Olga Golovkina ©AFP/Getty Images


With the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics less than a month away, several recent bans affecting the Winter disciplines will also be a particular concern.

In December, national freestyle skiing champion Anna Orlovskaya was handed a two-year suspension for an unspecified "breach of anti-doping rules", before junior figure skater Oksana Nagalati was banned for one year last week for using the masking agent furosemide.