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Igor Astarloa – the former world champion who has not raced since 2009 – is the latest victim in the UCI’s controversial biological passport program.

At the top: Astarloa won the rainbow jersey in 2003.

Astarloa, who won the world title in 2003 and retired in 2009 after not finding a team interested in signing him, was formally banned for two years and fined €35,000, the UCI said on Wednesday.

“The International Cycling Union (UCI) announces that following its request for proceedings against the Spanish rider Igor Astarloa Askasibar for a breach of the Anti-Doping Rules on the basis of his biological passport,” the UCI said in a statement released Wednesday, “the Disciplinary Commission of the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) has decided to sanction the rider by a two-year suspension from 26 November 2010 and €35.000 fine.”

Astarloa, now 34, retired in 2009 after he was among five riders named in the first wave of sanctions based on the biological passport testing program, introduced the year before in 2008. Others singled out were fellow Spaniards Ruben Lobato and Ricardo Serrano as well as Italians Pietro Caucchioli and Francesco De Bonis.

Astarloa was then riding with the modest Amica Chips team, which later closed due to financial problems. Unable to find a new contract, Astarloa retired in 2009 without being formally sanctioned and received a hero’s farewell earlier this year in his hometown of Ermua.

The Basque rider seemed to live up to the black legend that the rainbow jersey is cursed. He joined Cofidis in 2004, but the team struggled with doping scandals involving David Millar and others, and he broke his contract to join Lampre.

He joined the upstart Barloworld team for two seasons, marking his final pro victory with Milan-Torino in 2006, before rejoining the ProTour level with Milram in 2007. The team soon fired him after he revealed irregular levels in internal blood-testing controls during the 2008 Giro. Astarloa sued the team and reached a settlement before joining Amica Chips in 2009.

There was no immediate reaction from Astarloa, who is living in his hometown of Ermua and is occasionally spotted at cycling events in Spain.

The biological passport has come under fire from some quarters who believe it should be used as a tool to fight doping by monitoring riders’ blood levels, but should not be used as the lone factor to impose racing bans.

In October, Franco Pellizotti was cleared by Italian authorities after the UCI recommended a two-year ban following irregular controls of biological markers by the Italian rider.

Other riders, however, have been suspended based on the biological passport, including Italians Caucchioli and De Bonis.

The yet-unnamed Luxembourg cycling team continues to add more firepower, announcing Friday the arrival of Danish rider Jakob Fulgsang and the German pair of Linus Gerdemann and Fabian Wegmann.

Gerdemann will be reunited with Kim Andersen, who was his sport director back at CSC, while Fuglsang joins the Schleck brothers in the exodus from Saxo Bank to the Luxembourg squad.

“I have already worked with Linus earlier in his career and I always wanted to work with him again, so I am pleased to have the chance to get him on this team,” team manager Andersen said in a release. “We have big expectations for Linus. It has been good for him to have had a chance to grow as a person and as a rider in the last years and I think he has some amazing seasons ahead of him.”

Gerdemann, 28, is hoping to get his career back on track following some promising results when he rode with High Road, including a stint in the yellow jersey at the Tour de France.

“I know a lot of the people who will be riding and working for the team, so it was not that hard of a decision to make,” Gerdemann said. “Frankly, I am very excited to be racing with so many familiar faces once again.

”I want to win stage races and win the Tour de France with the team.”

Wegmann is another promising German rider who’s seen mixed results the past few seasons riding for Milram.

“Fabian is a rider I have always wanted on my team,” Andersen explained. “I have always liked him; he is a winner — pure and simple. Though he is not a pure climber or a pure sprinter, you can always count on him for several wins a year. He will mix nicely into the group and we surely can count on him to bring home some classics and semi-classics, or even the odd grand tour stage.”

The addition of Fuglsang was widely known for several weeks, yet the official confirmation is a boon for the new squad. A former mountain biker, many hail Fuglsang as grand tour material; he rode a solid race in his 2010 Tour de France debut.

“Obviously we have big expectations for Jakob. For me, he is one of the biggest talents in the sport,” Andersen said. “He is a very complete rider and we now know how to tweak his off-season preparation so that he can arrive in the best possible shape for the coming season.”

Other riders who have also been signed to join Frank and Andy Schleck are Daniele Bennati, Dominic Klemme, Maxime Monfort, Giacomo Nizzolo, Bruno Pires, Davide Viganò, Jens Voigt and Wouter Weylandt.