It may have been calculated, it may have been genuine contrition, but after years of denials Danilio Di Luca finally did an volte-face yesterday and owned up to raiding the medicine chest as a professional rider. The 34 year old Italian stood in front of 500 students in Possagno, Italy, and came clean.
“It’s not important how you fall, but how you get back up again,” he said, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Why did I do it? That’s a good question. When you're part of a system, you end up making mistakes. I told everything to the judges, and in some ways that set me free.”
Di Luca tested positive for CERA at the 2009 Giro d’Italia, a race he finished second in behind the Rabobank rider Denis Menchov. He won the 2007 edition of the Italian Grand Tour and was suspected of having doped then, with his hormone levels being extremely low in anti-doping tests. The results led to suspicions that he had used masking agents.
Di Luca escaped sanction then but was later banned for three months for his part in the 2004 Oil for Drugs investigation into the doctor Carlo Santuccione.
His positive tests in last year’s Giro led to a two year ban, as well as a fine of €280,000. However thanks to his cooperation with the prosecutor Benedetto Roberti, the suspension was reduced by nine months. He is eligible to return to racing and insists he can be successful.
“Now I’m ready to come back with my head held high, and I am sure that I can win without cheating,” he told the students. “Ten years ago, that would have been impossible. I don’t have proof, but I think that the majority of riders were doped. Now, things have changed. It’s in the best interest of the riders that the scene becomes cleaner.”
Di Luca still doesn’t have a contract for next season, but stated that he is in contact with a number of teams. He will hope that coming clean will help make the difference and give him the chance for a new start.