Riccò's fine, suspended sentence upheld in 2008 doping case

Riccardo Riccò shows his attitude

Riccardo Riccò shows his attitude (Image credit: ispaphoto.com)

A French appeals court upheld a two-month suspended prison sentence and a 3,000 Euro fine for Riccardo Riccò on Tuesday in a criminal case stemming from his 2008 Tour de France doping positive.

The Italian was given the same verdict in June, 2010, but his attorneys appealed on the grounds he had already been sentenced in Italy on the same charges.

Riccò was taken into custody prior to the stage 17 of the Tour de France in 2008 after anti-doping authorities announced he had tested positive for a banned EPO formulation called CERA. The drug was thought to be undetectable at the time, but authorities clandestinely rolled out a new test developed in conjunction with the manufacturer of the drug.

Riccò was held in Mirepoix and subsequently indicted on charges of "use of poisonous substances" in a court in Foix before being allowed to join his Saunier Duval team in leaving France.

After serving a reduced 20-month ban, Riccò returned to the sport with the Ceramica Flaminia team in 2010 only to be embroiled in another doping case a year later.

In February, he wound up in an intensive care unit of a hospital, his sudden and severe condition allegedly caused by a botched blood transfusion.

While he denied giving himself a blood transfusion, confessing only to an iron infusion, Riccò has thus far failed to convince the anti-doping prosecutor of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), who has recommended a 12-year ban in the case.

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