Riccardo Ricco, the Italian rider who was ejected from the Tour de France two years ago and handed over a 20-month ban from the sport after testing positive for CERA, the third-generation form of the human growth hormone EPO, has returned to cycling.

His return was condemned by Mark Cavendish who said, ‘It’s like a parasite coming back into the sport’; Ricco may line up against Cavendish in Milan-San Remo race.

From Guardian.co.uk:

The 26-year-old Ricco, a specialist climber, won mountain stages of the 2008 Tour at Super-Besse and the Col’Aspin. Four days after the latter it was revealed that he had given a positive result from a dope test taken after the fourth stage, when he had tried to evade testers. He was expelled from the race and his Saunier-Duval team left with him, firing the Italian from the squad the following day. The original two-year ban, handed down by the Italian Olympic committee, was reduced by four months on appeal to the Court for Arbitration for Sport on the grounds of his co-operation.

Now he plans to return with a small Italian team, Ceramica Flaminia. His ban ends on 10 March and he could find himself facing Cavendish 10 days later in the Milan-San Remo one-day classic, which the British rider won last year, and in the Giro d’Italia a few weeks later.

Cavendish said he is upset with the lack of regret for everybody and everything people like Ricco have damaged.

Tags: CERA, EPO, human growth hormone, Mark Cavendish, Riccardo Ricco, Tour de France

Posted in buy steroids, Steroid Cycles, steroid nation, Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Sports