LONDON (AP) — Paralympics cycling silver medalist Daphne Schrager was banned for two years on Friday after testing positive for an anabolic substance not approved for medical use.
The National Anti-Doping Panel which judged the British athlete’s case accepted she did not intentionally use ligandrol but noted she did not prove how it accidentally entered her system, possibly at a gym.
Schrager’s two-year ban expires in June next year, leaving the 25-year-old cyclist eligible to compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic Games.
“I want to be very clear,” the 2024 Paris Paralympics medalist in track pursuit posted on her Instagram account, “I have never cheated, nor have I ever knowingly taken any banned substance.”
Schrager also is a two-time gold medalist at track world championships. On the road, Schrager took silvers in time trial and road race at the 2024 para-cycling worlds in Zurich.
Schrager tested positive for ligandrol in an out-of-competition sample taken in April 2025.
She suggested to investigators she had been contaminated at the gym or at the home she shared with others. Expert witnesses supported her theory at the tribunal, the judges said.
“The tribunal was also satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that there was no recklessness in Ms Schrager’s attendance at the gym,” the judges wrote, imposing a two-year ban as she could not prove the source of contamination.
AP Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games
FILE - Britain's Daphne Schrager reacts after winning the silver medal in the Women's C 1-3 3000m individual pursuit final, Aug. 29, 2024, in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)
ALPE D'HUEZ, France (AP) — Tadej Pogacar launched a stunning solo attack from the foot of the iconic Alpe d'Huez to win the 19th stage of the Tour de France and extend his overall lead on Friday.
Even by the four-time Tour champion's lofty standards, it was up there with his best wins as he was more than three minutes behind with 12 kilometers (about 7.5 miles) remaining.
Riding without a teammate for the last section, he caught Ecuadorian rider Richard Carapaz and Frenchman Lenny Martinez with 1.5 kilometers left and then surged ahead for his fifth stage win of this year's race and 26th overall.
Martinez finished six seconds behind and Carapaz — who won Thursday's 18th stage with a brilliant breakaway win of his own — was nine seconds back. American Sepp Kuss, who faded in the closing stages, was 1 minute, 14 seconds adrift.
With a lead of 7 minutes, 11 seconds over Remco Evenepoel in the overall standings, and two stages remaining, Pogacar is on the brink of joining Eddy Merckx, Miguel Indurain, Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault as the only men to win five Tours.
Barring mishap or accident, the Slovenian star will be crowned when the race ends on Sunday on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
Rated as an HC mountain pass, the hardest category in the race, Alpe d’Huez is arguably the most famed climb in cycling and has near-mythical status on the Tour. Swarms of fans, many camping overnight and carrying flags of several nations, screamed encouragement on each of the 21 hairpins.
Pogacar kept his focus as the public got perilously close to his face and, at one stage, he had limited visibility due to smoke from flares being lit by spectators.
But as impressive as Pogacar’s win was, it also came about because Carapaz, Kuss and Martinez did not work together properly to distance Pogacar when he was lower down.
Perhaps thinking he could benefit from others' fading and get the stage win, Martinez kept sitting on Carapaz’s wheel, which was very much to Carapaz’s annoyance and meant the veteran had too much work to do alone.
He kept trying to accelerate while Martinez — 10 years his junior — did less work and a tired-looking Kuss generally sat back too much before drifting away.
With 900 meters left Carapaz was showing phenomenal stamina to stay with Pogacar, but he was finally undone by a brutal acceleration and could not follow as the yellow jersey rolled past him.
Saturday’s mammoth 171-kilometer Alpine stage could be epic.
It features three HC climbs — Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Galibier and Col de Sarenne — and one Category 1 climb up Col du Télégraphe before a hilly finish to Alpe d’Huez.
Pogacar does not need to go for victory and can safely hang back and protect his lead.
But will he?
There are 66 kilometers of pure climbing and that may be too much for him to resist.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, rides in the pack during the nineteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race with start in Gap and finish in Alpe d'Huez, France, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
Ecuador's Richard Carapaz climbs Alpe d'Huez during the nineteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race with start in Gap and finish in Alpe d'Huez, France, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, climbs Alpe d'Huez during the nineteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race with start in Gap and finish in Alpe d'Huez, France, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, crosses the finish line to win the nineteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race with start in Gap and finish in Alpe d'Huez, France, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, reacts as he crosses the finish line to win the nineteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race with start in Gap and finish in Alpe d'Huez, France, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
