Bans for failing doping tests could be doubled to four years as soon as next year, UCI president Pat McQuaid said on Wednesday.

The news comes after Austrian rider Bernhard Kohl, who placed third at this year's Tour de France, tested positive for a strain of the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin), named CERA.

Sanctions will be made on a case-by-case basis, said McQuaid, and cyclists will be judged on the gravity of the infringement and in particular the nature of the substance.

Kohl is the fourth Tour de France rider after Italians Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli, to test positive for the drug along with Germany's Stefan Schumacher.

McQuaid said he would like to see drug cheats slapped with bans - currently at a two-year maximum - for life.

"I have said before that I would like to see them out of the sport for good. That is purely on a personal level," he said Wednesday. "However, we are obliged to follow the world anti-doping code, and that is what the UCI will do. Currently the world anti-doping code gives a maximum
two-year sanction in the case of a positive test.

"From the first of January there is a bit more flexibility in it, and we can go up to a four-year ban in the cases of something regarded as wilful cheating."

Revisions in the world anti-doping code were approved last November in Madrid and go into full effect in January. The new rules allow both stiffer sanctions and reduced penalties, depending on the aggravating and mitigating circumstances surrounding the offense.