USADA: Former Rabobank, Team Sky doctor gets life ban

Leinders was banned for offences committed when he was the chief team doctor and a board member for Dutch outfit Rabobank between 1996 and 2009.

He was at the team in 2007 when Dane Michael Rasmussen was expelled from the Tour de France while in the yellow jersey for evading doping controls.

He worked for Team Sky on a part-time basis from 2010, but his contract was not renewed two years later and team principal Dave Brailsford later described his appointment as a mistake.

USADA said in a statement that Leinders "possessed, trafficked, and administered banned performance enhancing substances and methods without any legitimate medical need".

Following a collaborative investigation involving USADA, Anti-Doping Denmark, and Anti-Doping Authority Netherlands, the decision to impose the lifetime ban was rendered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA).

"It shocks the conscious that a board member and team doctor would abuse his trusted position by overseeing and participating in this type of dangerous and fraudulent activity," USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said.