Spanish national road race champion Alvaro Gonzalez de Galdeano tested positive on August 20 just before the Tour of Spain.

Galdeano is claiming his innoence vehemently, and says the problem may have been food supplements imported from the US, containing more than the legal amount of the anabolic steroid.

A second test in 8 days time will either prove his innocence or land him with a 6 – 12 month ban and affect his planned signing to the ONCE team for the 2001 season, but he’d already withdrawn from this weeks World Championships after an injury on the last stage of the Vuelta.

Galdeano joins a current rash of high profile sports stars suspected of abusing Nandrolone. British triathlete and cyclist Spencer Smith, sprinter Linford Christie and perhaps significantly Czech cyclist Jan Hruska – who is a ‘Vitalicio’ team mate of galdeano – as well as a host of other Olympic hopefuls are all trying to prove their innnocence after positive tests.