November 25, 2005 – It’s official: Four-time Vuelta winner Roberto Heras has been confirmed to have taken EPO. The counter-analyis of the B sample was performed yesterday in a Spanish lab and revealed what the A sample suggested: presence of the illegal blood booster.

Heras tested positive from the second-to-last stage of the Tour of Spain stage race, in which he won. Heras will face most likely a two year suspension from pro racing, a firing from his Liberty Seguros team. A Liberty Seguros press release that came out just before the news suggested that once the annoucement was made official, Heras would resign from the team on his own.