Reduced ban for Danilo Di Luca
Italian cyclist Danilo Di Luca has had his doping ban reduced by the Anti-Doping Tribunal of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) from two years to just over nine months.
The rider was officially suspended on July 22, 2009, but the ban had been shortened due to his collaboration in a number of current doping investigations. He is now free to compete professionally again.
"I explained the methods I’ve seen in the years that I’ve raced to Benedetto Roberti and the public prosecutor’s office in Padua...I want to tell children that it’s not true that you have to dope to win … Doping does not change you."
Di Luca’s second place finished in the 2009 Giro d’Italia was revoked when his tests, taken at that event, were returned positive. He had previously received a three-month ban in 2007 due to his involvement in the Oil for Drugs scandal.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) openly invites suspended athletes to collaborate in exchange for a reduced ban. Di Luca made a point of publicly explaining that in his collaboration, he did not point any fingers.
"My collaboration was not against athletes, but in favour of cycling," said Di Luca to
La Gazzetta dello Sport. “In the past few weeks a lot of false things have been written. It’s been said that I named names during my collaboration and this isn’t true. Alessandro Petacchi, for example, who is a great friend of mine, knows well that
I have never mentioned his name, just as I didn’t name any of my other fellow cyclists."
It is now on Di Luca’s shoulders to find a team that will take him for the 2011 season. The classics specialist has been unofficially linked to Mauro Gianetti’s new team Goex, led by Denis Menchov and Carlos Sastre.
"I want a ProTour team," said Di Luca. "My objectives are the Giro and the classics, races that I’ve always done and that I’ve also won. I’m missing a world title. That could be the highlight of my career."
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