Currently building form prior to his return to the international peloton, Riccardo Riccò had a very close call while out training on Saturday morning. The Italian was speeding down the descent of Serramazzoni when he encountered a bus coming from the opposite direction.
Riccò swerved to prevent a collision and hit the deck. His bike went under the bus and was completely destroyed, while the rider suffered cuts and bruises. He is expected to be sidelined for several days.
The 26-year-old appeared to be one of the most promising talents in cycling but, after winning two stages in the 2008 Tour de France, he was deemed positive for CERA and disqualified from the race. He was hit with a two-year ban, but last March the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced his ban to 20 months as he had co-operated in the investigation.
He is due to return to competition on March 17th 2010 and will be eligible to ride Milan San Remo and the Giro d’Italia, provided his Ceramica Flaminia-Bossini Docce team is invited.
Riccò has claimed that he is a reformed character and will prove that he can win clean. However there is a chance that he could run into further trouble; the samples taken from the 2008 Giro d’Italia are due to be re-examined in order to look for signs of CERA use.
He won two stages and finished second overall, as well as taking the best young rider classification. If it is shown that he also used CERA in that year’s race, he could in theory be hit with a life ban.