Di Luca positive for CERA in 2009 Giro d'Italia
Danilo Di Luca during the 2009 Giro d'Italia with race leader Denis Menchov. (DAMIEN MEYER/AFP/Getty Images)
Italian rider Danilo Di Luca has been provisionally suspended by the International Cycling Union (UCI) on Wednesday after failing two drug tests for EPO Cera during the 2009 Tour of Italy.
The 33-year-old LPR team leader, who is not competing in the Tour de France, won two stages of the Giro and wore the leader's pink jersey for eight days. He finished second overall just 41 seconds behind Russian Denis Menchov.
The UCI said that Di Luca, winner of the 2007 Tour of Italy, tested positive for the banned-blood booster erythropoietin (EPO) CERA on May 20 and May 28 following blood tests carried out by a French laboratory.
"These adverse findings were a direct result of a targeted test programme conducted on Mr Di Luca using information from his biological passport's blood profile, previous test results and his race schedule," the UCI said in a statement.
"The provisional suspension of Mr Di Luca remains in force until a hearing panel convened by the Italian Cycling Federation determines whether he has indeed committed an anti-doping rule violation under Article 21 of the UCI Anti-Doping Rules."
Di Luca is the first team leader to be suspended owing to test results based on the recently introduced biological passport.
Di Luca insisted that he was clean.
"Would I be so stupid as to take Cera at the Tour of Italy one year after (Ricardo) Ricco, (Emanuele) Sella and (Davide) Rebellin were caught?" said Di Luca. "I've fallen from the clouds, it's really very strange, so much so that I couldn't say how I feel. Two years would be a terrible penalty for me which would force me to retire.
"There's talk about Cera but I didn't take it, also because many athletes have been caught taking it and falling into this trap would have been really stupid," he added. "For me it's important now to have the B samples tested in a different laboratory to the one in Paris because I've heard they use strange methods.
"How do I feel? How should I feel? I know what's awaiting me. But most of all I know that if it's confirmed this will be the end for me."
Di Luca was due to take part in the Brixia Tour in Italy on Thursday and had been targeting the world championships at the end of September in Mendrisio, Switzerland.
It is not Di Luca's first brush with anti-doping forces.
He was banned for three months in 2007 following a hearing of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) for his ties to doctor Carlo Santuccione in the "Oil for Drugs" case.
In April 2008, Di Luca, was acquitted by CONI following insufficient evidence after an abnormal control during his 2007 Tour of Italy win.
Since April, a dozen riders have fallen foul of drugs testers including Holland's Thomas Dekker (Silence) and Spaniard Inigo Landaluze (Euskaltel), who also tested positive for EPO Cera.
This new generation form of EPO was first detected last summer with Italy's Riccardo Ricco, second in the 2008 Giro, forced to quit the Tour de France during the race.
© 2009 AFP
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User Comments
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NickHu
Posted Thu 23 Jul, 8:33 am BST Flag as inappropriate
Not really a surprise this is it? If he's banned it will be good to see the back of him. I wonder if we are heading towards another year where all the major tour winners are subsequently found to be dopers?
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mylesrants
Posted Thu 23 Jul, 10:15 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
Last year, the International Cycling Union launched the most awaited
tool to combat doping — the biological passport program. Although it
has not yet identified any rider with the said programme, the UCI says
that it would be revealing the first cases before May 9 2009, in time for the
start of the Giro d’Italia.
UCI spokesperson Enrico Carpani said “with the first case, we
have to be absolutely sure that they can defend themselves in court. It
has to be safe and reliable so experts, as well as the legal
department, are working on it. “
Danilo Di Luca not only showed acceptable blood values in his passport
to get a start in the Italian grand tour, but almost daily testing
showed nothing suspicious in the new quicker test turnaround.
Today, the UCI stated: “The decision to provisionally suspend Mr Di Luca was
made in response to a report from the WADA accredited laboratory in
Paris indicating an Adverse Analytical Finding of Recombinant EPO
(CERA) in blood samples collected from him at the Giro d’Italia on 20
May and 28 May 2009".
The next bit is just spin. Di Luca.
“These adverse findings were a direct result of a targeted test
programme conducted on Mr Di Luca using information from his biological
passport’s blood profile, previous test results and his r
ace schedule.”
I propose that this statement is rubbish, covering a 10 million euro system
that doesn’t work. It was regular testing that caught the cheat- not
raised hemo levels. Surely, if the passport system was working ‘the
killer’ would have been prevented from starting and bringing our sport into
the gutter once again.
Di Luca's non-participation in the 2004 Tour de France was due to doping At the 2007 Giro- Di Luca had unspecified low hormone levels. Italian authorities published doping allegations and he was suspended for one race and the three months the off season! Di Luca said this was a ‘scandalo’ .I think you are a ‘scandalo’ Mr Di Luca. And it didn’t take a failing passport to identify you as a cheat.
I blame the UCI- not the killer. I
think the UCI must accept that the system is not identifying the
cheats, stop pouring money into it and concentrate on either displaying
the actual results of all riders, leaving it open to scrutiny and free
from criticism; Or dump it as a poor method of weeding out the cheats and
move to other methods- perhaps the much proposed, much ignored- Vo2 testing.
I hearby congratulate
Stefano Garzelli Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo for winning stage 4 of the 2009 Giro NOT Di Luca. I Congratulate Franco Pellizotti ,Liquigas for a fantastic stage 10 win- not Di Luca; and welcome Carlos Sastre on to the podium for you my Spanish hero finished 3rd not 4th. There is two speeds in the peloton. Thankfully the dopers are in the minority.
Denis Menchov wall will now have the points jersey as well as the overall which he rightfully won. A message to our twitter page sums it all up from
: LIFE BAN !! the only solution.. my Di Luca signed jersey in the bin already .. and proudly wearing my blue wristband.
and I will now back to the Tour de France where my mind should be
“Come on Brad………..”
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