Vini Fantini-Selle Italia Statement Regarding Danilo Di Luca

It was only a few days ago that we had Vini Fantini-Selle Italia's Mauro Santambrogio wonderful stage 14 victory which ended on the steep slopes of the Jafferau climb in fog, rain and snow. Today the team faces the news that Danilo Di Luca has tested positve for EPO (A sample) and is suspended from this year's Giro.

Di Luca  has a long history of doping:

2007: winner of 2007 Giro d'Italia, irregular sample taken during race suggested an illegal blood transfusion; cleared due to insufficient evidence
2009: suspended for positve for CERA during 2009 Giro d'Italia
2011: after suspension rode for Team Katusha for no salary
2012: joined Acqua & Sapone as team captain; team was not invited to 2012 Giro d'Italia (Garzelli, also caught doping in his career was on the team as well)
2013: joined Vini Fantini-Selle Italia

Below is the statement today from Vini Fantini-Selle Italia:

Following of the news Danilo Di Luca's positive result at an out-of-competition test performed on April 29th, the team Vini Fantini Selle Italia through its team manager Angelo Citracca specifies the following: "Danilo Di Luca is an athlete who was not part of our group, not wanted by the team and he was included in organic by our Main Sponsor Valentino Sciotti, for friendship and geographical proximity to the cyclist, he insisted and created the conditions for the inclusion of Di Luca in the team. Danilo Di Luca repeatedly involved in problems related to doping and already disqualified for similar violations, repaid the trust of a friend and great entrepreneur with another mistake, whose consequences damages Vini Fantini Selle Italia team even if it is innocent. The athlete, already returned after a disqualification with other teams, was not included in the philosophy and programs of our team, working for years in the discovery and growing of young athletes. Following the news, learned with regret in the morning, the team has dismissed the athlete, intimating him to get away. At this point, Vini Fantini Selle Italia will ask for a compensation for damages, in accordance with the internal Rules signed by all the members of the team".

The sports director Luca Scinto points out: "I'm devastated, I never wanted Di Luca in the team and I've never made any secret to anyone of this, even receiving some critics. We have built our group on the sacred values of the cycling and we made the mistake to satisfy the request, expressed many times by our main sponsor, who is a uccessful entrepreneur passionate about this sport, to try to give confidence to an athlete dear to him for friendship. Unfortunately this trust has been rewarded with an incredible mistake, which I still can not understand". Echoes the disappointment of Scinto, the deep sorrow of the Main Sponsor, Valentino Sciotti: "What can I say? I believed in man and in the athlete and it is right that I take all the blame because I made a mistake. Maybe I was wrong to believe that after a mistake you can redeem and learn not to repeat the mistakes, maybe I'm wrong to want to help a person I saw in trouble, maybe I was wrong to follow the religious values that my family gave me, maybe I'm wrong in believing that when you talk to a person looking into his eyes, you can also read his heart. I was wrong and I must ask to forgive me the fans, the Team, the other sponsors, my partners and all the other cyclists who are racing Giro d'Italia fairly and honestly and all those young athletes who will be shaken by this news".



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Giro: Di Luca Positive, “I’m not so stupid”

MILAN, 22 July 2009 - Danilo Di Luca, second in the Centenary Giro d'Italia, has tested positive for Cera (third generation EPO) in two samples taken during the race. The tests were performed on 20 May in Moncalieri (Turin) at 7.50am and on the 28th in Silvi Marina (Pescara) at 7.24am. The analyses were carried out in the Parisian laboratory of Chatenai-Malabry by the UCI, which has already suspended the rider. The cyclist, winner of the 2007 Giro, commented on the news tersely: “It the counter analyses also confirm the positive result, I’ll stop racing.” Di Luca won two stages of the Giro: the fourth which arrived in San Martino di Castrozza and the tenth which arrived in Pinerolo where he even temporarily grabbed the leaders' jeresy from Denis Menchov.

HIS COMMENT

“But would I have been so stupid as to take Cera a year after Riccò, Sella, and Rebellin had been found out at the Giro d’Italia?” This was Danilo Di Luca’s response on the telephone to his suspension for doping by the UCI, as he travelled back to Pescara. A UCI doctor gave the news of his positive result this morning on the telephone to his wife Valentina, in Pescara. Valentina Giuliani, daughter of former racer Stefano, then informed her husband at the end of a stage in the Brixia Tour. “It’s a total shock,” Di Luca said. “It’s really strange, so much so that I don’t even know how I am at the moment.” “For me now it's important to do the counter analyses in another laboratory and not the Parisian one, because I have been told that they use strange methods. Two track and field athletes, who tested positively, went to another laboratory that reversed their test result.” “How do I feel? How should I feel? I know what awaits me,” concluded Di Luca, winner of the 2007 Giro d’Italia and second this year, behind the Russian Denis Menchov. “But above all I am aware that, if it is all confirmed, it will be the end. Now I have to see what to do. I can’t compete until 3 August, the day when the counter analyses are performed.”

DOPING

The targeted tests have produced results that have been compared with the information on the rider’s biological passport. Di Luca’s provisional suspension will remain in force until the Italian Federation (FCI) decides whether the athlete has violated article 21 of the UCI anti-doping regulations. Di Luca, emphasised the International Cycling Union, “has the right to ask to wait for the results of the counter analyses on both samples.” If Di Luca were to be disqualified the Spaniard Carlos Sastre would win a podium position while the stage victories would go respectively to Garzelli and Pellizotti. Di Luca has previously been suspended for 3 months for frequenting the controversial doctor Carlo Santuccione. On 27 February 2008 CONI’s anti-doping prosecutor had demanded that he be suspended for two years, following the discovery of anomalous hormone levels by the anti-doping test performed on 30 May 2007 after the 17th stage of the Giro d’Italia. On 16 April 2008, CONI’s appeal court judge acquitted the racer.

ZOMEGNAN

Angelo Zomegnan, the director of the Giro was adamant: “The barrage of suspicions in recent weeks has been dramatically confirmed with the non-negative result of the racer Danilo Di Luca at two points during the Centenary Giro d’Italia. We trust in the speed of the inquiries that the sports law and normal legal authorities certainly need to complete to come to a final and incontrovertible conclusion to the case. Once more the Giro d’Italia, which has always striven to be honest and that in 2009 invested more in hunting out doping than it ever did in its first hundred years, has been the victim of negative events, which oblige the organisers to evaluate appropriate actions to protect both the substance and image of the event.”

UCI Provisionally Suspends Danilo Di Luca

Another doping stain: The UCI announced today that it has suspended Italian Danilo Di Luca for two positive tests for the EPO 3rd generation derivative CERA. The LPR Brakes rider's doping control samples showed evidence of the banned blood booster on two occasions - on May 20 at the Arenzano stage and the 28th at the Benevento stage.

In the exciting 100th Giro d'Italia Di Luca finished second overall to Russian Denis Menchov of Rabobank.

Italian media will be going into shock shortly.....

Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com

Danilo Di Luca's De Rosa King "RS"

Photo: Danilo Di Luca's De Rosa King "RS". cyclingnews.com reported, "Danilo Di Luca's (LPR Brakes-Farnese Vini) new De Rosa King 3 RS is supposedly 15 percent lighter and 18 percent stiffer than the current King 3 by virtue of an upgraded carbon fiber mix and new lay-up schedule. Based on the current King 3's claimed weight, that would put Di Luca's frame close to the 800g mark though it's unclear at this point when this upgraded model might be available to consumers. Otherwise, Di Luca's King 3 RS bears close resemblance to its standard King 3 cousin with the same seatmast head, two-piece aluminum dropouts, internal cable routing and smooth lines."

The background information on Armstrong's bike can be found in this post:
http://italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com/2009/05/lance-armstrongs-artist-bikes-for-giro.html

After the Giro we'll get back to "regular programming": everything from A to Z about Italian cycling. Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com.

Stage 4: Di Luca Takes Off Like a Rocket

SAN MARTINO DI CASTROZZA (TN), 12 May 2009 - Danilo Di Luca has won the fourth stage of the Giro d’Italia, 162 kilometres from Padua to San Martino di Castrozza. The LPR-Farnese rider, from Abruzzo, 33 years old, beat Stefano Garzelli and Franco Pellizotti at the final sprint. Fourth was Soler, then Simoni, Leipheimer, Lövkvist and Ivan Basso. Di Luca – winner of the Giro d’Italia 2007 – has gained his second victory this season, and the 47th in his career. He had not won a stage at the Giro since Briançon in 2007. The new pink jersey is (Sweden/Columbia-High Road), who has 2 seconds on Danilo Di Luca.

DI LUCA DAY — “This was my moment. I was very confident I could win here. The team has worked very hard to get me to the front after the puncture” – commented Di Luca, whose time bonus takes him to within 2 seconds of the pink jersey. “I made my attack at 350 metres because Soler had a fair lead. Garzelli came with me, someone who is very dangerous on these types of finishes, but at 200 metres I took a slight lead and managed to hold onto it. This win is dedicated to the region of Abruzzo, and that’s why I was pointing at the writing on my vest. Tomorrow? The Alpe di Siusi is a serious climb and strategies will fly out the window. Those who don’t have the legs anymore at 9 km from the finish line will fall back.”

ARMSTRONG — “I’m not down, it was just the first test and I wasn’t too far away from the leaders”, assured the Texan, who only fell away in the final kilometre. However, nobody from Basso to Di Luca, and Bruseghin to Diquigiovanni-Androni, believes he is about to throw in the towel. “He wasn’t far behind, he looked in pretty good form to me. Let’s see how he does tomorrow", was the widely shared opinion of Michele Scarponi. The Texan will probably be surrounded by a group on the 25 km uphill climb to Alpe di Siusi. Perhaps coloured yellow and green. “Today we showed what it means to work as a team”, remarked Franco Pellizotti, who came third thanks to the work carried out alongside Ivan Basso. “Ivan and I will both have a major say tomorrow.”

THE DETAILS — At km 11, the Spanish rider Perez Sanchez fell and had to withdraw. A group took off sprinting – Spanish rider Martinez (Xacobeo-Galicia), the Italians Bellotti (Barloworld), Viganò (Fuji-Servetto) and De Bonis (Diquigiovanni), who is the better ranked at 2:28 from Petacchi, the British rider Stannard (ISD) and the German Voigt (Saxo Bank). There were only three remaining to attack the Croce d’Aune climb: Bellotti, De Bonis and Voigt, while behind them a fall involved several riders, including Da Dalto, who seemed to be the worst injured, but managed to get up. The pink jersey, Petacchi, shot to the head of the group before breaking away. In the final climb, Di Luca got a puncture and passed with about 20 seconds’ delay. At the start of the final ascent (13.7 km, average gradient 5.5%, maximum 10%) De Bonis gave up and Bellotti and Voigt remained in the lead. The group of top riders was about 2 minutes behind, Petacchi at over 8 minutes.

At minus 8 minutes, only Voigt remained, but the group caught up with him slightly after -3 minutes. Soler made a fruitless attempt in the final stretch, before the top riders took off in a sprint. Armstrong lost 15 seconds in the final stretch, "Legs weren't bad and made it almost the whole way. Came off a little at the top. Not bad for 1st big climb in...".

SWEDE IN PINK — The pink jersey, meanwhile, is currently in the possession of another High Road rider, Thomas Lövkvist, and here, just as with the stage victories by the Bordonali team, it is now three out of four pink jerseys for the High Road team, the only exception being Petacchi’s short stint as leader. “I feel like I’m dreaming but in fact it’s all real,” remarked the Swede, who won the 2009 Montepaschi Strade Bianche. “Cavendish? He lost the jersey yesterday following the fall, and the group could have waited for him.”

TOMORROW — The 100th anniversary Giro d’Italia – 92nd race – continues tomorrow with the fifth stage: 125 kilometres from San Martino di Castrozza to Alpe di Siusi. The start is at 1:45 pm, and the finish is expected around 5:15 pm. Right at the start looms the Passo Rolle, while the finish is the second uphill finish of the race: Alpe di Siusi is 1844 metres high, 25 kilometres long, with an average gradient of 6% (maximum of 11%).

Top 10 GC:

1 Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) Team Columbia - Highroad 13.05.28

2 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) LPR Brakes - Farnese Vini 0.02

3 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia - Highroad 0.06

4 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Astana 0.26

5 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana

6 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0.28

7 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 0.32

8 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - N.G.C. 0.42

9 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Lampre - N.G.C.

10 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervelo Test Team 0.49

After the Giro we'll get back to "regular programming": everything from A to Z about Italian cycling. Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com