Androni-Sidemec team manager Gianni Savio has confirmed that the Italian squad will take legal action against Davide Appollonio and Fabio Taborre following their positive anti-doping tests.
Under new UCI rules, Androni-Sidemec was suspended from racing for 30 days in August for the two doping cases. The team will return to action this weekend at the Brussels Cycling Classic and GP de Fourmies/La Voix du Nord.
Savio has fought to save his team’s honour and long-term future since the two positive tests, with riders and staff joining in the legal action against Taborre and Appollonio.
Savio has gone as far as describing the legal action as an historic turning point in the fight against doping because riders in activity have joined the legal action against their colleagues.
Despite hiring riders who have been involved in doping in the past, Savio claims he has done whatever possible to stop doping within his team, using both education and deterrents such as the introduction of fines, clear race programmes and access to riders’ Biological Passports.
"We will be inflexible with the two irresponsible riders who have broken the rules of our team. Their criminal behaviour - I insist on this term because doping is a crime - has caused enormous damage not only to our Company but also to the staff and riders who, for thirty days, could not compete in races," Savio said in a statement as the team prepared to return to racing.
"However, we are used to facing and overcoming adversity, therefore we will never surrender and will always continue to fight with our usual determination and tenacity."
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