MILAN, (Reuters) – Italian Francesco De Bonis has  become the first cyclist to be given a doping ban because of  discrepancies in his biological passport.

The Italian Olympic Committee suspended him for two years  after a request from the International Cycling Union (UCI).

“The UCI emphasises the historic importance of this first  judgement under the scope of the biological passport programme,  introduced by the UCI in 2008,” the UCI said in a statement on  Thursday. A biological passport is an electronic record where the  results of all doping tests by a rider over a period of time are  collated and compared.

Cycling has been rocked by a series of doping scandals in  recent years and the UCI has redoubled its efforts to clean up  the sport.

Franco Pellizotti, one of the favourites for this year’s  Giro d’ Italia, was pulled out before the start of the race this  month when the UCI said there were problems with his biological  passport and asked for an investigation.

Spanish rider Antonio Colom Mas has also been given a  two-year doping ban, the UCI added.