Brajkovic has announced on his blog that he has been suspended for 10 months by the International Cycling Union (UCI) following a positive test result for the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine.

The sample was given on April 18, 2018 during the Tour of Croatia, with Brajkovic now suspended until June 1, 2019.

Brajkovic has accepted his suspension, saying he "didn't have more energy or money to fight it."

He has blamed the positive test result on a contaminated meal-replacement powder, however, explaining that the company that produced the supplement also makes pre-workout product containing methylhexaneamine. 

The UCI accepted this explanation and have given him a reduced ban, with first-time anti-doping violations normally resulting in four-year suspensions. 

The 35-year old has been racing professionally since 2005, with Adria Mobil his most recent team.

He won the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2010. 

Despite the ban, Brajkovic wrote in his blog that there have been worse things to happen in his career, including bullying.

"In my career I was bullied, didn't fit in, because I didn't go out with people to get lit to near death, I was choked during the Tour by a team-mate, I was told 'I'm zero, nobody, worthless', right after I signed a contract," he said.

"I was also told I was going to be fired and they'll make sure I never ride again."

He also recounts an incident involving a doctor who was willing to let him take a supplement containing the banned substance octapamine.

"When I told the doctor that the supplement we were given contained banned octopamine, he said 'ah it's just a small amount,'" Brajkovic claimed.

"It took me a week to convince them to tell riders not to use that particular supplement.

"There are good and bad doctors UCI said, meanwhile, riders pay the price."

The UCI have recently announced that regulations banning the synthetic painkiller tramadol will come into force on March 1. 

It has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency Monitoring List since 2012, but it is not banned outright.