The UCI today announced it has reinstated Mario Zorzoli to his post as Scientific Advisor and UCI Doctor with immediate effect. Zorzoli was suspended from the UCI in January after the investigation into Geert Leinders turned up allegations that Zorzoli had offered inappropriate advice to Leinders during the latter's time as chief doctor for the Rabobank team.
Leinders was handed a lifetime ban for his role in helping the Rabobank riders dope, and the allegations against Zorzoli were passed along to the Cycling Independent Reform Commission for evaluation.
"Following some allegations concerning Dr. Mario Zorzoli which arose around the case against Dr. Geert Leinders, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) asked Dr. Zorzoli not to work on anything related to anti-doping while those allegations were looked into," a UCI statement read. "The Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC), whose mandate and terms of reference covered the period in question, reported that they found no evidence to support the allegations. Our review reached the same conclusion and therefore Dr. Zorzoli was asked to resume all his normal duties as UCI Doctor and Scientific Advisor with immediate effect."
It wasn't the first time that Zorzoli has been suspended and then reinstated by the UCI. In 2006, he was temporarily out of his job after it was confirmed he supplied L'Equipe journalist Damien Ressiot the anti-doping forms from Lance Armstrong's 1999 Tour de France tests, which Ressiot was able to match to the results of an EPO test research study and show that Armstrong had been taking the drug during his first Tour victory.
Zorzoli was reinstated a few weeks later.
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