In an interesting approach to judgement, it appears that CONI, the Italian Olympic committee, has proposed that Danilo Di Luca's doping ban should be 3 years rather than 2 because he's aggravated the situation by not admitting his guilt (Di Luca Facing Three-year Ban For Doping | Cyclingnews.com). Meanwhile Di Luca reportedly claims the whole situation is a result of a conspiracy and that his lawyers will prove the two samples taken during this year's Giro d'Italia are false positives.
Well, what's new. But the EPO tests are, I believe set up quite conservatively, and tend to yield false negatives rather than false positives. In an added attempt to punish the errant doper, CONI are imposing financial penalties:
The agency also intends to hold Di Luca to the International Cycling
Union (UCI) rule which fines riders one year's salary for a positive
doping control, as well as the costs of the results management and
B-sample analysis allowed under UCI anti-doping article 275.
Well, I'm no friend of dope cheats (but I do find their defensive bleating quite amusing), but this does seem to pile penalty upon penalty. On the subject of conspiracy, Di Luca's lawyer said:
"There were people who talked about Di Luca's positive before the test results came out," de Toni told La Gazzeta dello Sport.
"It's all a bit suspect. Danilo said he was subjected to six controls
in the Giro, and only two were positive - why?" If the values from May
28 were positive, he asked, why was there no confirmation in subsequent
checks?
Well of course a system weighted to false negatives rather than false positives would produce a bunch of negative results alongside positive results.
In another doping story, Cyclingnews.com also report that Schumacher CAS decision postponed until January. Once again, the defence team quibble over the testing, this time claiming that the tests were ineligible because they weren't approved at the time. Clearly the defence team see Schumacher was doping, but it's OK because they reckon the test wasn't approved. An interesting bit of illogic, I think. Anyway, we should hear the final rulling on January 11th, though it seems as thought they'll take appeals as far as they can, and probably well beyond the point at which the average tifosi could give a toss.
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