Olympic Silver Medal Winner Davide Rebellin Failed Drug Test
Veteran Italian rider Davide Rebellin tested positive for EPO CERA at last year’s Beijing Olympics where he won silver in the road race, Italian media reported on Tuesday.
The 37-year-old – who this month won a record-equalling third Fleche-Wallone classic – numbers many memorable one day victories during his career especially in 2004 when he won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Fleche Wallonne and the Amstel Gold Race.
Earlier on Tuesday the Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) had announced – after being informed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – in a statement that an Italian athlete in an unspecified sport had failed a dope test.
EPO Cera is effectively a delayed form of EPO whereby the athlete feels the effects a month after taking the drug and for which two of Rebellin’s Gerolsteiner team-mates German Stefan Schumacher and Austrian Bernhard Kohl tested positive for in last year’s Tour de France – barely a month before the start of the Olympics.
Rebellin subsequently joined the Diquigiovanni team for this season and had been due to compete in the Giro d’Italia, which gets underway on May in Venice.
Another Italian rider, climbing specialist Riccardo Ricco, had also tested positive for this new form of EPO during the 2008 Tour de France – the 25-year-old is suspended till March 2010.
Davide Rebellin at Fleche Before The Doping News Is Released
Photo by: CorVos Pro
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