ITALIAN RIDER DIEGO ULISSI, who won two stages of this year’s Giro d’Italia, failed a drugs test during the race, his team Lampre confirmed on Wednesday.
The 24-year-old returned a positive test for salbutamol, a drug used to treat asthma, during the 11th stage on May 21 at Savone.
Lampre said that Ulissi had revealed to testers at the time that he had two puffs of ventolin containing salbutamol as well as paracetamol, following a fall during the stage.
The Tuscan rider has been suspended by his team pending the analysis of his B sample.
“Ulissi strongly rejects the presence of such a large amount of salbutamol,” the team said in a statement.
Riders are permitted to use the drug for medical purposes below a certain threshold, but Ulissi’s sample contained almost twice the permitted concentration.
The statement continued: “The results of the test from the UCI report the presence in the urine of the athlete of an abnormal amount of salbutamol (1900 ng/ml), higher than the limit allowed by the regulations, which sees the limit at 1000 ng/ml.
“The athlete himself and the medical staff of the team will continue to explore the reasons why the urine has been identified as having an abnormal and high presence of salbutamol, compared to only two inhalations performed.”
Ulissi won the fifth stage at Viggiano and the eighth at Montecopiolo, but quit the race after the 17th stage.
@Tony, you’re obviously not a cycling fan if you think Ulissi “wasn’t well known” before the Giro.
@fergus, cycling is the only sport that actively tackles the issue of doping head on and releases positive test results to the public, unlike nearly every other sport which covers up positive results or simply doesn’t bother to carry out adequate testing. People are incredibly naive that they think doping only goes on in cycling and maybe athletics. Every major sport is guilty of doping but their governing bodies are corrupt and couldn’t care less. Why would they tarnish their sports reputation with news of doping? Look at how it affected cycling, the heads of other sports don’t have the balls to bring the doping issue to the fore, there is too much money at risk, lining their pockets takes precedence over fair play in their sport.
I am a cycling fan, he was known but not well known.
I do love cycling the rewards for doping still exceed the bans of been caught lifetime bans in cycling and other sports as well it’s the only way.
@Tony, apologies for appearing like a know it all by accusing you of not being a cycling fan. As a double Junior Road Race World Champion and a previous Giro stage winner to name but a few results I would say he was well known.
@fergus, lifetime bans are not the solution. That would potentially destroy an athletes life. Athletes who use PED’s more often than get involved through the team’s (of whatever sport) systematic doping structure. It is in very few cases that athletes single handedly source and administer their own drugs. They are more often than not introduced to it in a fashion where they are not told much if anything at all about what they are being injected with or what tablet they are told to take. Team owners turn a blind eye to this, in some cases they encourage and fund the doping. The athletes are the unfortunate ones who get lambasted by the media and fans and are viewed as immoral pieces of shit, when they are only a pawn in the game. The solution lies in education of young athletes and to eradicate it as much as possible a doping amnesty would be hugely welcome. Doping has existed for decades in sports, it is a deep deep rooted problem with no quick fix solutions. A drastic overhaul of sports structures in general will be the only way to have drug-free sports.
Not surprised, he was not know very well before this giro and blitzed a win in 2 difficult stages
Clean cycling said no one ever.This problem will never go away.