Italian Olympic Committee to take action after reports of EPO, blood transfusions and growth hormone.
Reports in Italian daily sports paper, La Gazzetta dello Sport, of Mario Cipollini's alleged ties to Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes prompt the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) to open investigations against the former world champion. The newspaper has accused Cipollini of using large quantities of banned substances during 2001 through 2004.
"The Office of the Prosecutor for doping, following press reports about former cyclist Mario Cipollini, announces that it has opened the dossier as "related acts," read a CONI press release.
During his career Cipollini amassed close to 200 victories and in 2002 he won both the Milan-San Remo and the world road race championship title. Also in 2002 he took no less than six stage wins in the Giro d’Italia on his way to become the rider with most stage wins in the Giro in the history of the race.
In the newspaper’s reports, Cipollini is alleged to have used large quantities of EPO and growth hormone under the guidance and instruction of Fuentes and is said to have received between 13 and 16 blood transfusions in the lead-up to his Milan-San Remo victory and World's win in Zolder.
The former ‘Lion King' of the sprints swiftly squashed the reports by Gazzetta that suggested Cipollini was in fact the rider who used the code name "Maria" during his time of cooperation with Fuentes.
"In the name of and on behalf of Mr Mario Cipollini and regarding the news that appeared today on the Gazzetta.it website, in the related newspaper and picked up by several other parts of the media, this statement categorically denies the false and absurd accusations made against my client," wrote Cipollini's lawyer, Giuseppe Napoleone.
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