Italy’s Sella fighting his way back to top with likely team switch
Italian Emanuele Sella plans to return to the Giro d’Italia three years after he tested positive for blood booster EPO. In the next days, he is due to sign a contract with Gianni Savio’s team Androni Giocattoli – Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni.
Savio’s Androni team is a second division Italian team that regularly races the Giro d’Italia. This year, Michele Scarponi gave Savio a stage win at Aprica and finished fourth overall behind winner Ivan Basso. Next year, Scarponi will race with team Lampre.
Sella won three stages at the 2008 Giro d’Italia – Alpe di Pampeago, Passo Fedaia and Tirano – and the climber’s green jersey racing for team CSF Group. However, two months later, July 23, the International Cycling Union (UCI) found Sella positive for blood booster Erythropoietin (EPO) CERA after an out-of-competition test.
He cooperated with prosecutors and received a shorter ban from the Italian anti-doping tribunal, 12 months. He successfully returned with Italy’s CarmioOro last fall and won a stage at the Cinturó de l’Empordà in Figueras, Spain.
Over the winter, CarmioOro-NGC moved up from the third to second division, but it failed to receive an invite to race it’s country’s biggest race, the Giro d’Italia. Sella continued to race and placed second in the GP Kanton Aargau and last month, third overall in the Tour of Austria.
Riccardo Riccò won the Tour of Austria and helped complete his own successful comeback. He tested positive at the 2008 Tour de France, sat out nearly two years and then returned with Italian team Ceramica Flaminia. Last week, however, he announced that he will leave the team to join Dutch team Vacansoleil next season.
The 2011 Giro d’Italia will start in Turin to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. It begins with a 22-kilometre team time trial May 7 from the Royal Palace and ends with an individual time trial in Milan May 29.