Christian Pfannberger (born 9 December 1979) is an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n former professional

road racing cyclist Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

. He was a two-time Austrian national road-race champion (2007 and 2008). Other achievements included winning the U23 National Championship in 2001 and the

Giro del Capo The Giro del Capo was a road cycling stage race held in the vicinity of Cape Town, South Africa. The 2009 edition was held in the form of four challenges. The last edition, held in 2010, was ranked as 2.2 by the UCI and was part of the UCI Afri ...

, a

stage race A race stage, leg, or heat is a unit of a race that has been divided in several parts for the reason such as length of the distance to be covered, as in a multi-day event. Usually, such a race consists of "ordinary" stages, but sometimes stages ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in 2008. In spring 2008 he had top 10 finishes in all three of the

Ardennes classics The Ardennes classics are three cycling classics held in mid-April in the Belgian Ardennes and southern Limburg in the Netherlands: Liège–Bastogne–Liège, La Flèche Wallonne and Amstel Gold Race. First held in 1892, 1936 and 1966 respectiv ...

. Pfannberger was handed a lifetime ban by the Austrian National Anti-Doping Agency for his second doping violation.

Doping

Pfannberger served a two-year suspension between 2004 and 2006 for a positive testosterone test. In May 2009, he was suspended by Team Katusha pending clarification of a ''non-negative'' doping test at an out-of-competition control in March of that year. He had been on Katusha's preliminary start list for the

2009 Giro d'Italia 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

, but he was suspended and replaced by

Alexander Serov Alexander Nikolayevich Serov (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Серо́в, Saint Petersburg, – Saint Petersburg, ) was a Russian composer and music critic. He is notable as one of the most important music critics in ...

when news of the positive test broke. On 29 June, it was announced that his B sample had also tested positive, and that he would face a hearing in the next eight weeks which could result in Pfannberger being suspended for a period ranging from eight years to a lifetime ban. Pfannberger was subsequently handed a lifetime ban by the Austrian National Anti-Doping Agency for his second doping violation. He has consistently maintained that he has never doped, and will challenge the lifetime ban.

Major achievements

;2001 : (U23) MaillotAustria

National Road Race Champion : (U23) Thüringen-Rundfahrt & 1 stage ;2006 : 3rd Overall,

Tour of Austria The Tour of Austria (german: Internationale Österreich Rundfahrt) is a stage cycling race held in Austria. From 1949 to 1995 it was a race for amateur cyclists, turning into a professional event in 1996. In 2005 and 2006 it was organised as a 2 ...

:: 1st, Stage 3 ;2007 : MaillotAustria

National Road Race Champion ;2008 – Barloworld : 1st, Overall,

:: 1st, Stage 1 : 6th,

Amstel Gold Race The Amstel Gold Race is an annual one-day classic road cycling race held in the province of Limburg, Netherlands. It traditionally marks the turning point of the spring classics, with the climbers and stage racers replacing the cobbled classics r ...

: 9th,

La Flèche Wallonne La Flèche Wallonne (, French for "The Walloon Arrow") is a men's professional cycle road race held in April each year in Wallonia, Belgium. The first of two Belgian Ardennes classics, La Flèche Wallonne is today normally held mid-week betw ...

: 5th,

Liège–Bastogne–Liège Liège–Bastogne–Liège, also known as ''La Doyenne'' ("The Old Lady"), is a one-day classic cycling race in Belgium.Cycling Weekly, UK, 13 March 1993 First run in 1892, it is the oldest of the five ''Monuments'' of the European professional r ...

National Road Race Champion : 8th,

2008 UCI Road World Championships The 2008 UCI Road World Championships took place in Varese, Italy, between September 23 and September 28, 2008. The event consisted of a road race and a time trial for men, women and men under 23. Qualification Participating nations Cyclists fro ...

;2009 : 4th,
GP Miguel Indurain Gp or GP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming * Gameplanet (New Zealand), a New Zealand video game community * GamePolitics.com, a blog about the politics of computer and video games * ''GamePro'', a monthly video game magazine * ...
: 9th,
Amstel Gold Race The Amstel Gold Race is an annual one-day classic road cycling race held in the province of Limburg, Netherlands. It traditionally marks the turning point of the spring classics, with the climbers and stage racers replacing the cobbled classics r ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pfannberger, Christian 1979 births Living people People from Judenburg Austrian male cyclists Cyclists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists of Austria Austrian sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in cycling Sportspeople from Styria