The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has partially upheld the appeal filed by the Italian cyclist Ricardo Ricco against the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) following his positive doping test with EPO (Mircera) at the Tour de France 2008.  The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has partially upheld the appeal filed by the Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco against the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) following his positive doping test with EPO (Mircera) at the Tour de France 2008.
Ricco had initially been suspended for 24 months by the Italian Anti-doping Tribunal (TNA). The TNA had found Ricco guilty of ingestion of prohibited substances (18 months) and of prohibited collaboration with persons banned by the sports authorities (6 months).
In his appeal to the CAS, Ricco requested a reduction of his suspension to one year.
During the appeal procedure before the CAS, the CONI admitted that the information given by Ricco had been helpful to the French authorities in investigating other similar doping cases with the result that Leonardo Piepoli was found guilty of doping with the same substance. The CONI considered that the situation of Piepoli could not be taken into consideration by the TNA at the time when the first decision was issued and requested that the suspension be reduced to 20 months.
In its award, the CAS confirmed the existence of the two anti-doping rule violations committed by Ricco. It decided to impose a supension of 20 months on the athlete, starting on 18 July 2008, which was the maximum sanction which could be ordered on the basis of the new conclusions of the CONI, and rejected the arguments of Ricco with respect to a further reduction of his ban.
Also caught taking Cera at last year's Tour de France was German Stefan Schumacher and Austrian Bernhard Kohl, both of which are serving suspensions.
|