Career
He spent his neo-pro year in 2002 with Acqua e Sapone-Cantina Tollo. His second season saw him sign with Domina Vacanze. There, he took his first victory in Stage 2 of the Settimana Ciclistica Coppi-Bartali. He stayed with Domina Vacanze through the 2004 season and signed with UCI ProTeam Rabobank. With Rabobank he managed to capture Stage 1 of the Vuelta a la Comunidad Valenciana in 2006. For the 2007 season he transferred to Team CSC, now known as Saxo Bank, capturing Stage 3 of Paris–Nice and second at the UCI Road World Championships.
Kolobnev finished fourth in the road race at the 2008 Olympic Games. Second-place finisher and silver medalist Davide Rebellin later tested positive for Continuous erythropoietin receptor activator, causing the IOC to strip him of his silver medal. Though the UCI considers Kolobnev promoted to third in the race's standings, he has not, as of January 2010, been awarded a bronze medal.
He lives in Dénia, Spain, with his wife Daria and two sons, David and Alexander.
In the 2011 Tour de France he tested positive for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide, a masking agent that can hide the presence of performance enhancing drugs. He was subsequently pulled from the tour by his team, and his results for that stage were annulled. Despite his B sample also testing positive he only received a fine from the Russian cycling federation. However this was later appealed by the UCI to CAS, although he was subsequently cleared of any charges on February 29, 2012. Kolobnev rejoined Team Katusha in March 2012.
In 2012, the International Cycling Union initiated an investigation of Kolobnev and the Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov over allegations brought by the Swiss news magazine L’lllustre and Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. They accused Vinokourov of cutting a deal with Kolobnev in 2010 to aid him (Vinokourov) in winning Liege-Bastogne-Liege. They alleged 150 thousand euros exchanged hands. The UCI's investigation is still pending.
Read more about this topic: Alexandr Kolobnev
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