Matteo Rabottini (Neri Sottoli)(Image credit: El Pedal de Frodo/www.elpedaldefrodo.com)
The national podium with Formolo, Nibali and Rabottini (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Matteo Rabottini (Yellow Fluo) cornering(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
On Friday morning Matteo Rabottini was named as one of 16 riders in the Italian squad for the World Championships. On Friday afternoon he was dumped out of the team after the UCI revealed he had tested positive for EPO in an out of competition test carried out on August 8.
Rabottini won the climber's jersey and the stage to Piani dei Resinelli at the 2012 Giro d'Italia and was the Neri Sottoli team leader in this year's Giro d'Italia, finishing seventeenth overall. He finished third in the Italian national road race championships in June, behind Vincenzo nibali (Astana) and Davide Formolo (Cannondale).
The Italian Professional Continental team was rocked by the EPO doping cases involving Mauro Santambrogio and Danilo Di Luca in 2013 and Rabottini's positive is a further blow for the credibility of the Tuscan-based team managed by Luca Scinto and Angelo Citracca. The team has yet to comment on the Rabottini positive but is due to ride in the Trittico Lombardo series of one-day races in Italy next week.
The Italian Cycling Federation has announced that Davide Formolo (Cannondale) will take Rabottini's place in the 16-rider Italian long list of riders selected for the World Championships. Formolo is competing at the Gran Prix Cycliste de Quebec and Montreal.
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Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
