THE HAGUE: The B-sample requested by Dutch cyclist Thomas Dekker has confirmed his positive drugs test for the banned blood-booster EPO, the ANP news agency reported on Wednesday.

Dekker has accepted the findings and is awaiting his sanction, ANP reported.

The 24-year-old Silence rider risks a four-year ban.

The sample was originally taken on December 24, 2007, but new procedures introduced since then allowed for further tests which revealed a positive reading for EPO and the rider was ruled out of this year's Tour de France three days before the start in July.

World cycling's governing body the UCI said it had also taken into account elements of Dekker's blood profile in his biological passport in 2008 and 2009 to order disciplinary proceedings on suspicion of doping.

It is not the first time the Dutchman, who won the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race in 2006 and the Tour of Lombardy in 2007, has been embroiled in controversy.

In August last year it was reported that he was not selected for the Tour de France because of abnormally high blood parameters, an indication, though not proof, that blood manipulation has taken place.