After returning to the top level by signing for the ProTeam Katusha, 2007 Giro d’Italia winner Danilo di Luca is aiming to head back to the Italian Grand Tour this season if the organisers allow him to do so.
The 35 year old plunged the race into scandal in 2009 when he finished second overall to Denis Menchov, yet later tested positive for the third generation EPO product CERA.
That led to a suspension of two years, but this was later reduced greatly due to cooperation with investigators.
Di Luca initially maintained his innocence, protesting that he had done nothing wrong, but made a public confession last month in front of 500 students in Possagno, Italy.
“It’s not important how you fall, but how you get back up again,” he said then, 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.”
The very public mea culpa gesture was something which has helped him secure a deal with Team Katusha, a ProTeam squad that fended off a rival bid by the Astana team. Signing the deal in Possagno, Treviso, Di Luca insisted that he is competing for the right reasons this time, and is even prepared to do so without a basic salary.
”I feel like a new man and I will race for free,” he told La Gazzetta della Sport on Monday. “All I have agreed with [general manager Andrei] Tchmil is a prize system.”
Di Luca will consequently only earn money if he is successful in races, thus receiving performance-related bonuses from the team. It’s a big incentive for him to do well, but it can be argued that it imposes a lot of pressure on the rider and could lead to temptations to do what he can to maximise the number of wins.
He will insist otherwise, and says that he is sure he has made the right decision to go with the Russian ProTeam. “From the first time we met, I knew this project was the right thing. Astana wanted me, and I thank them for believing in me, as did Martinelli who did a lot to bring me back with him after our time together at Saeco. But I knew it was a time for a change, a different choice.”
Di Luca has laid out a provisional race calendar which he hopes will take him back to the Italian tour. According to La Gazzetta, he’ll begin with the Challenge Mallorca races, then ride the Trofeo Laigueglia, the Tour de Sardinia, Tirreno-Adriático, Milan-San Remo, the Tour du Pays Basque, Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and then the Giro.
The latter depends of course on race organisers RCS Sport permitting him to start; his situation is akin to that of another formerly suspended rider, Riccardo Riccò, whose Vacansoleil team has a guaranteed entry to the Tour de France, but who himself doesn’t know if he will be allowed ride.
According to Katusha manager Andre Tchmil, if he does take part, it will be to help the team leader. “I told him: ‘I’ll take you to a condition that you come at no cost. You'll help (Joaquim) Rodriguez in the Giro and then you will have the opportunity to demonstrate your value, you'll go to the Vuelta to win. I count on your honesty and your word.”
Two issues are worth considering in relation to the non-payment of a salary to Di Luca. The first is the UCI rule stating that all riders with ProTeams must receive a minimum payment of just under €50,000. It remains to be seen if the UCI will permit the arrangement. The second issue is Team Katusha’s stipulation that any riders who break the team’s anti-doping rules pay a sum equal to five times the annual salary. Five times zero is, well, zero and so Di Luca is not liable to the penalty which potentially applies to any other rider on the team who breaks the rules.
Katusha will presumably work another clause into his contract. The rider already owes the UCI almost €200,000 as part of a financial penalty relating to his 2009 positive test, and so will be keen to start clocking up bonuses as soon as possible.