CONI Requests 3-Year Ban for Danilo Di Luca
Danilo Di Luca, who won the 2007 Giro d'Italia and came in second at this year's edition, faces a lengthy ban in Italy for testing positive at the May race. Italian Olympic Committee prosecutors have recommended a three-year ban for Di Luca, who maintains his innocence, and will send the case to the committee's anti-doping tribunal for a final ruling.
Italian cyclist Danilo Di Luca should be banned for three years for testing positive for the illegal blood-booster CERA during May's Giro d'Italia, the Italian Olympic Committee's (CONI) anti-doping prosecutors said on Thursday.
"The anti-doping prosecutors' office has charged Danilo Di Luca at CONI's national anti-doping tribunal for violation of the doping regulations, with a request for a three-year ban," read a statement on CONI's website (www.coni.it).
Prosecutors also requested that Di Luca, the 2007 Giro champion who was the runner-up in this year's race, be ordered to pay a fine and costs.
It will now be up to CONI's anti-doping tribunal to decide whether the cyclist is guilty and what punishment he should face if he is.
Di Luca says he is innocent and that he is convinced he will clear his name.
He served a three-month suspension in late 2007 after CONI found him guilty of frequenting a doctor accused of supplying doping products to athletes.
Last year CONI tried to ban him for two years for having abnormal hormone levels during the 2007 Giro but he was cleared after much legal wrangling.
