10/06/2008
Italian rider Leonardo Piepoli twice tested positive for the banned blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO) at the Tour de France, the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) said on Monday.
"Leonardo Piepoli tested positive twice, on July 4 and 15," AFLD president Pierre Bordry told Reuters. "The substance is EPO."
Piepoli, who has been summoned to appear before the Italian Olympic Committee on Friday, and fellow countryman Riccardo Ricco were sacked during the Tour after his Saunier Duval team mate failed a dope test.
Piepoli had not yet failed a dope test but Saunier Duval said at the time he had "violated the team's code of ethics".
The entire team quit the race when it was announced Ricco, winner of two stages in the event, tested positive. He has already been banned for two years.
Piepoli, 37, won the 10th stage of the Tour at Hautacam, a day before testing positive for the second time on the race.
Schumacher's positive confirmed
On the other hand, German cyclist Stefan Schumacher's team says he also tested positive for a banned substance during the Tour de France.
Schumacher, who won both individual time trials at the Tour and held the race lead for two days, tested positive for CERA, an advanced version of the blood-boosting hormone EPO.
Gerolsteiner team manager Hans-Michael Holczer said Monday that “I have received a confirmation from Christian Prudhomme that Stefan Schumacher was tested positive for CERA” during this year's Tour de France. He added the rider was immediately suspended from the team. Prudhomme is the Tour de France's race director.
The French anti-doping lab has been retesting samples from the Tour to look for traces of CERA.
Seven riders have failed a dope test on the 2008 Tour, after Ricco, Spaniards Juan Manuel Beltran and Moises Dueñas Nevado, Kazakh Dmitri Fofonov and France's Jimmy Casper tested positive. Casper was cleared by the French federation last month.
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