Italian rider officially under investigation for doping
More than a week after being hospitalised with kidney failure, Italian rider Riccardo Riccò is still suffering the after effects of the botched blood transfusion he reportedly gave himself earlier this month.
The 26 year old climber has been moved to the cardiology department of the Baggiovara hospital due to issues with his heart and lungs and, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, is being given antibiotics and steroids to treat the problems. Doctors are continuing to monitor his condition and it is not yet know when he will be released.
Whenever he gets home, his battles will continue. Yesterday it was confirmed that he is formally under investigation by the prosecutor of Mondena for alleged violation of Article 9 of the law concerning doping. Aside from determining if Riccò did indeed transfuse blood that had been stored in his refrigerator for 25 days – something he reportedly confessed to medical staff on the day he was admitted – the prosecutor also wants to determine if he had help.
His girlfriend Vania Rossi will presumably be questioned to see if she aided him in conducting the transfusion. Last January an A sample of her urine showed the presence of CERA, the third generation form of EPO that Riccò himself was busted for in 2008, but the B sample wasn’t sufficiently high to confirm her guilt. The cyclo-cross rider therefore sidestepped a suspension.
Riccò is facing a life ban from the sport if he is found guilty. He has been suspended by his Vacansoleil team and will certainly be fired if it is shown that he broke anti-doping laws. He had pledged to race clean after his return to the sport, and indeed benefited from the positive PR of working with anti-doping trainer Aldo Sassi at the Mapei Centre.
The terminally-ill Sassi described Riccò as the last big gamble of his career, saying he believed the rider could and would win clean. The 51 year old expected to live until this summer, but died on December 12th.
Last week Giorgio Squinzi, owner of the Mapei Centre where Sassi worked and where his testing and coaching was carried out, blasted the rider. “We accepted following Riccò only out of respect for Sassi in the final months of his life,” he told la Gazzetta dello Sport. “Indeed, I was pretty much against it, and Aldo knew that. I told him to let it go. But this was a personal challenge for Sassi. Something he believed in. Evidently, not everyone is equal….it’s like killing him a second time.”
In retrospect, it was a huge gamble According to fellow pro Stuart O’Grady, the rider might never have been clean. “I have Italian friends who, when they raced with [Riccò] at the age of 15, told me that he boasted about how he doped and he even showed them how he did it,” he told Procycling magazine over a year ago.