Torri defends late night tests

Ettore Torri, head of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) anti-doping section, defended the late night doping controls conducted this week on members of the Lampre team, including Damiano Cunego and Alessandro Ballan. He said that such actions were necessary to clean up the sport, and offered a specific reason for the action. "The experts tell me... at that hour the tests are more effective in detecting certain substances," he explained, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.

Such off-hour actions might be used again, even during races. "Nothing can be excluded," he said. The CONI in fact does not have any limitations to carrying out its anti-doping tests, contrary to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), whose regulations foresee the controls to take place between 7am and 10pm.

There were conflicting reports as to whether the Lampre riders were in their hotel rooms or out dining at a restaurant when the controllers arrived at the hotel. According to the Gazzetta, the riders could face disciplinary proceedings and suspensions up to three months for not having informed the authorities of their whereabouts that evening.

Moreover, Thursday morning at 7.30am, six riders (Ballan, Cunego, Marzano, Vila, Bruseghin and Tiralongo) were again submitted to out-of-competition testing by UCI controllers, according to tuttobiciweb. The training camp will end today.