Controversial Italian rider Riccardo Riccò appears to be facing a probable life ban from the sport of cycling after investigators concluded that the rider did indeed undergo a banned blood transfusion in February.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, prosecutors looking into the rider’s emergency hospitalisation have decided that there is enough evidence to back up claims made at the time that he had admitted to blood doping. The rider was reported then to have told doctors treating him that he had infused blood stored in a refrigerator for 25 days; since then, he denied ever confessing to such an action, and claimed that those who said otherwise were lying.
The prosecutor of Modena has been studying the case and several experts and witnesses have led him to conclude that Riccò’s version of things is not true. One factor is a number of medical tests carried out during his illness, which reportedly confirm an injection of poorly-preserved blood. The second is based on the account of medical staff at the hospital; they wished to perform an infusion on the rider via one of his arms, but said that he told them to use the other. On inspecting the arm that he wished not to be used, they apparently noted bruising typical of a badly-performed transfusion.
Investigators have examined his phone records but have not been able to pinpoint who aided him with the transfusion.
Riccò’s partner Vania tested positive for the third generation form of EPO, CERA, in January 2010, but escaped a sanction when her B sample fell just short of the levels required for verification. There are no indications at this point in time that she aided the-then Vacansoleil rider, but investigators are likely to have questioned her to determine if she could have been involved.
La Gazzetta reports that the complete file has been sent to prosecutors with CONI, the Italian Olympic Committee, and that a final decision is due in the next few weeks.
Evolution of current case:
Riccò previously tested positive for EPO CERA during the 2008 Tour de France. His two stage wins there were later declared null and void, and he incurred a 20 month ban. He was liable for a 24 month suspension but had time reduced for cooperating with the investigators.
He returned to the sport and claimed he was a reformed character, promising to ride clean. He started working last Autumn with Mapei Centre chief physiologist Aldo Sassi, who had a reputation as being an anti-doping coach.
Sassi, who had terminal cancer, told La Gazzetta dello Sport that he was staking everything on helping the Italian to return to a high level, but doing so in the correct way. “I have a life expectancy that goes as far as July: you’re my last gamble,” he was reported as telling the rider.
Sassi passed away suddenly in December. Soon afterwards, Riccò promised that he would continue on in the right way. “Aldo has sadly died,” he told La Derniere Heure. "But his spirit still exists at the Mapei centre. I now work with people who worked with him these past fifteen years and using its methods. Working with Sassi has done a lot of good for my image, it’s true, but I especially want it to bear fruit."
Those words appeared to be empty ones when he was hospitalised in early February, shortly before he was due to line out in the Tour of the Mediterranean with the Vacansoleil team. He reportedly admitted undergoing a blood transfusion at the time. That led to his firing and an investigation, but the enquiry stalled in May when medical expert professor Giovanni Beduschi died suddenly due to a heart attack. In June, things started moving again when the prosecutor of Mondena sent the dossier to the anti-doping prosecutor with CONI.
Riccò, meanwhile, had reversed his declared intention to retire and was preparing to return to racing. He signed a contract with the small Meridiana-Kamen team and looked set to line out in the Tour of Serbia. However on June 8th the Commission for Health Protection of the Italian cycling federation decided to suspend his licence, saying it was doing so to protect the health of the athlete.
The initial 60 day enforced break from competition was set to expire in early August but on the third of that month, Dr Francis Plotinus, the president of the National Anti-Doping Tribunal, ordered the suspension to be extended by another 30 days. The decision was made after a request by the Ufficio di Procura Antidoping (Office of the Antidoping Prosecutor), under articles 19 and 12 of CONI’s anti-doping rules.
That 30 day period is due to end this week but rather than coming back to cycling, Riccò appears likely to face a lifetime ban from the sport.