The Court of Arbitration for Sport has been approached by Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco to reduce a two-year suspension.

Ricco was penalized by the Italian authorities and banned from the sport by the Anti-doping Tribunal of the National Olympic Committee of Italy (CONI) on October 2 after testing positive for CERA, a third generation version of banned substance EPO.

From Espnstar.com:

The 25-year-old, after initially denying the allegations, eventually pleaded guilty and named the doctor who had given him the substance, as well as another rider, in an effort to get a reduced punishment.

A decision on Ricco’s appeal will likely be reached within four months.

A statement released today by CAS read: “The CONI Anti-doping Tribunal has imposed a suspension of two years on Ricco after a positive doping test with EPO, performed during the Tour de France 2008.

“The athlete requests the reduction of the suspension on the basis of his collaboration with the authorities in this matter.

“The directions with respect to the arbitration procedure will be issued later on by the Tribunal in accordance with the Code of Sports-related Arbitration.

“As a general rule, CAS delivers its decisions within four months from the filing of the appeal.”

Ricco won two stages on the Tour – the second with a spectacular finish on one of the toughest mountain climbs.

Ricco would only be able to compete again after July 30, 2010 if the appeal fails.

Tags: CERA, EPO, Riccardo Ricco, Tour de France

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Riccardo Ricco, the cyclist from Italy, is hopeful that his two-year suspension will be reduced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Italian authorities handed down the penalty to the rider and Anti-doping Tribunal of the National Olympic Committee of Italy (CONI) banned him on October 2 after he tested positive for CERA, a third generation version of banned substance EPO.

From Espnstar.com:

The 25-year-old, after initially denying the allegations, eventually pleaded guilty and named the doctor who had given him the substance, as well as another rider, in an effort to get a reduced punishment.

A decision on Ricco’s appeal will likely be reached within four months.

A statement released today by CAS read: “The CONI Anti-doping Tribunal has imposed a suspension of two years on Ricco after a positive doping test with EPO, performed during the Tour de France 2008.

“The athlete requests the reduction of the suspension on the basis of his collaboration with the authorities in this matter.

“The directions with respect to the arbitration procedure will be issued later on by the Tribunal in accordance with the Code of Sports-related Arbitration.

“As a general rule, CAS delivers its decisions within four months from the filing of the appeal.”

Ricco won two stages on the Tour – the second with a spectacular finish on one of the toughest mountain climbs.

Ricco, the former Saunier Duval rider, will make it only after July 30, 2010 if the appeal fails.

Tags: CERA, EPO, Riccardo Ricco, Tour de France

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The Silence Lotto team has decided to sack Bernhard Kohl after his sample tested positive to CERA, the new generation of the banned blood booster EPO, at the Tour de France.

The National anti-doping agency (AFLD) of France confirmed the positive sample finding.

From Espnstar.com:

Kohl finished third and also won the Polka Dot jersey as the best climber on this year’s Tour.

The Austrian, who rode for Gerolsteiner this season, had signed a contract with Silence Lotto which was due to run until 2011.

But a statement from his new team read: “Around 1900 (on Monday) the press told us that Bernhard Kohl has been controlled positively for the use of CERA.

“We have immediately checked this information with the Gerolsteiner’s manager, who has confirmed it.

“If this information is confirmed by the official authorities, the team management will start the legal steps in view of breaking immediately our future collaboration with Kohl.”

Italians Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli, plus Germany’s Stefan Schumacher, have already tested positive for CERA.

It was revealed by the anti-doping authorities that a sample of Kohl contained CERA before and during the Tour after re-tests at a laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry.

Tags: Bernhard Kohl, CERA, EPO, Leonardo Piepoli, Riccardo Ricco, Silence Lotto, Stefan Schumacher, Tour de France

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Bernhard Kohl is expected to be sacked by the Silence Lotto team after he tested positive for CERA, the new generation of the banned blood booster EPO, at the Tour de France.

A sample of Kohl was found to contain CERA before and during the Tour after re-tests at a laboratory in Chatenay-Malabry.

From Espnstar.com:

Kohl finished third and also won the Polka Dot jersey as the best climber on this year’s Tour.

The Austrian, who rode for Gerolsteiner this season, had signed a contract with Silence Lotto which was due to run until 2011.

But a statement from his new team read: “Around 1900 (on Monday) the press told us that Bernhard Kohl has been controlled positively for the use of CERA.

“We have immediately checked this information with the Gerolsteiner’s manager, who has confirmed it.

“If this information is confirmed by the official authorities, the team management will start the legal steps in view of breaking immediately our future collaboration with Kohl.”

Italians Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli, plus Germany’s Stefan Schumacher, have already tested positive for CERA.

The positive sample finding was confirmed by France’s national anti-doping agency (AFLD).

Tags: Bernhard Kohl, CERA, EPO, Leonardo Piepoli, Riccardo Ricco, Silence Lotto, Stefan Schumacher, Tour de France

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The Kazakh rider, Dimitry Fofonov, has been fired by the Credit Agricole team after he tested positive for heptaminol during the Tour de France.

Fofonov produced a positive A sample following the 18th stage from Bourg d’Oisans to St Etienne that was won by Marcus Burghardt.

From Espnstar.com:

Fofonov’s failed test was confirmed by race organisers shortly after Carlos Sastre claimed overall victory after Sunday’s final stage into Paris.

Credit Agricole, the French bank which sponsors Fofonov’s former team, had announced prior to the Tour that they were ending their sponsorship at the end of 2008.

The team won two stages of the Tour through Thor Hushovd and Simon Gerrans.

Fofonov is the fourth rider to test positive for a banned substance on the 2008 Tour after Manuel Beltran, Moises Duenas Nevado and Riccardo Ricco, who all were found guilty of EPO use.

The doping incident once again highlighted the association between cycling and doping, which has grown over the last few years.

Tags: Dimitry Fofonov, doping, EPO, heptaminol, Manuel Beltran, Moises Duenas Nevado, Riccardo Ricco, Tour de France

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Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco has made an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for reducing a suspension of two years.

The penalty was handed down by Italian authorities to Ricco and he was banned from the sport by the Anti-doping Tribunal of the National Olympic Committee of Italy (CONI) on October 2 after testing positive for CERA, a third generation version of banned substance EPO.

From Espnstar.com:

The 25-year-old, after initially denying the allegations, eventually pleaded guilty and named the doctor who had given him the substance, as well as another rider, in an effort to get a reduced punishment.

A decision on Ricco’s appeal will likely be reached within four months.

A statement released today by CAS read: “The CONI Anti-doping Tribunal has imposed a suspension of two years on Ricco after a positive doping test with EPO, performed during the Tour de France 2008.

“The athlete requests the reduction of the suspension on the basis of his collaboration with the authorities in this matter.

“The directions with respect to the arbitration procedure will be issued later on by the Tribunal in accordance with the Code of Sports-related Arbitration.

“As a general rule, CAS delivers its decisions within four months from the filing of the appeal.”

Ricco won two stages on the Tour – the second with a spectacular finish on one of the toughest mountain climbs.

The former Saunier Duval rider will only be able to race again after July 30, 2010 if the appeal fails.

Tags: CERA, doping test, EPO, Riccardo Ricco, Tour de France

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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

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This 2008 Tour de France’s riders might have crossed the finished lines several weeks ago, but it looks like the rigors of the race is not yet over. The rigors of Tour de France drug screening, that is.

Retroactive testing for the new generation blood booster CERA, or Continuous Erythopoiesis Receptor Activator, is now being carried out by French laboratories. So far, two riders were caught using the banned compound since the retroactive testing was implemented. It was announced on Monday that Italy’s Leonardo Piepoli and Germany’s Stefan Schumacher both tested positive for CERA.  And race officials are expecting more positive tests in the coming weeks.

“The tests are still underway, they are not all done yet,” French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) head Pierre Bordry told Reuters on Wednesday.

“I imagine there could be one or two more cases,” race director Christian Prudhomme added, in a week when two Tour riders were exposed as drugs cheats.

Italian rider Riccardo Ricco was suspected of taking CERA when the race was still underway in July and was subsequently sent home. Spanish riders Manuel Beltran and Moises Dueňas, tested positive for EPO, and were also sent packing.

Why the late screening?

“People in the street ask me: ‘How did that come out so late?”‘ Prudhomme said. “In July, the process wasn’t legitimate at the time … These tests are of a new type.”

There are two labs which are currently testing the samples from all of the riders who competed in this year’s race.

The Chatenay-Malabry laboratory, which has developed a more effective blood test to find this EPO variant, and a WADA-approved Lausanne facility are testing blood samples. CERA is difficult to detect through urine samples.

“We are testing samples from July 3, 4 and 15,” Bordry said, adding there was no room for error.

“They are all tested by the Chatenay-Malabry lab, which is the official AFLD lab, but also in Lausanne, as a guarantee.”

Tags: CERA, doping, EPO, French Anti-Doping Agency, Leonardo Piepoli, Manuel Beltran, Moises Duenas, Riccardo Ricco, Stefan Schumacher, Tour de France

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The International Olympic Committee plans to take the same track Tour de France has taken. IOC says blood samples taken at the Beijing Olympics are to be reanalyzed for the EPO (erythropoietin) variant CERA, or Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator.

Oh, we can almost hear Beijing Olympic dopers singing, “Que sera, sera (whatever will be, will be),” as their fates now rest on the hands of the anti-doping officials. From ABS-CBN:

The IOC’s announcement comes 48 hours after reanalyzed samples from the Tour de France using the latest technology unearthed two drug cheats – Germany’s Stefan Schumacher, a double stage winner on this year’s race, and Italian Leonardo Piepoli.

IOC spokesman Emmanuelle Moreau told AFP: “This is part of our normal procedure. We keep the samples for eight years and whenever a new test arrives we carry out new tests.”

The CERA form of EPO was detected for the first time at this year’s Tour in the sample of Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco with a full test developed to combat it by the French laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry.

The laboratory is currently retroactively checking 15 samples from this year’s Tour with two of those producing Schumacher and Piepoli’s positive tests.

It was that double success that “prompted the IOC to retest samples from Beijing,” explained Moreau.

The IOC is now in the process of moving all the Beijing samples to its headquarters in Lausanne before finalizing the conditions and timing of the new tests.

“A joint IOC/WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) commission is going to decide the procedure,” Moreau said.

At the recently concluded Summer Olympics in Beijing, over 1,000 blood samples were taken from participants as part of over 5,000 anti-doping screenings. Testing for CERA is found more effective using blood samples than urine samples.

Over 1,000 blood samples were taken at the Games as part of over 5,000 anti-doping controls. IOC officials bannered the 2008 Beijing Games as one of the ‘cleanest’ in the history of modern Olympics.

Although more than a dozen athletes were tested positive for illegal substances in the months leading up to the Beijing Olympics, only six athletes tested positive for banned compounds when the Beijing Olympics went underway. Spanish cyclist Maria Isobel Moreno was the first athlete to be ejected from the Games when she tested positive for EPO. The other athletes tested positive either for anabolic steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.

Tags: anabolic steroids, CERA, EPO, International Olympic Committee, Lenardo Piepoli, Maria Isobel Moreno, retroactive testing of blood samples, Riccardo Ricco, Stefan Schumacher, steroids, Tour de France, WADA

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The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) issued a two-year ban to Riccardo Ricco on Thursday after the rider admitted that he engaged in doping during this year’s Tour de France.

After winning two stages of the Tour, Ricco has tested positive for CERA, or Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator, which is an advanced variety of blood booster erythropoietin (EPO). Ricco has been riding on the UCI ProTeam Saunier Duval-Scott since 2006, but was ejected from the team due to his doping violations.

The 25-year-old climbing specialist was hoping his admission would entail a reduced ban, but got the maximum penalty due to another offense.

CONI reduced the doping part of the ban by six months from the ma¬¬ximum two years. But they also added six months because Ricco had gone to Carlo Santuccione, a physician who had already been penalized for doping infringements.

“I’m very disappointed and bitter. I expected better understanding,’’ Ricco said. “But I made a mistake and it’s fair that I pay.’’

Ricco’s lawyers indicated they would likely appeal to the Court of Ar¬¬bit¬ra¬tion for Sport (CAS).

“Something is not working in sports justice, because if Ricco had not collaborated he would have received the same ban of two years,’’ Ricco’s lawyer Alessandro Sivelli said. “If he had stayed quiet, Santuccione’s name would never have come out.’’

The ban expires on July 30, 2010, disallowing Ricco from participating in the next two editions of the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.

Roche, the pharmaceutical company which developed CERA, has been involved in a controversy several months ago. It started when WADA president John Fahey had issued a warning to dopers that during its manufacture, Roche implanted a molecule to help anti-doping officials to detect its illicit use. The company has denied Fahey’s claim, saying CERA does not contain said stealth molecule.

Tags: CERA, doping, EPO, Italian Olympic Committee, Riccardo Ricco, Tour de France

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