After being banned for nine months for taking almost double the allowed Salbutamol level, Lamre-Merida have said they have full confidence in Diego Ulissi, who will return to racing at the tour of the Basque Country before racing the Ardennes Classics, Tour of Romandie and the Giro.

VeloNews spoke to Lampre-Merida General Manager Brent Copeland about the whole process, that saw Ulissi suspended after the Giro and then return to racing in September before being given a backdated sentence.

“The Swiss federation gave him the nine-month ban, and they put it down to negligence, so he’s available to start racing at end of March. As a team, we’ve discussed this with our medical staff and our sponsors, and we’ve been keeping up to date with court action. With the class and quality of rider that Diego is, and it was a rider that we were very disappointed for that to have happened to, so we are looking forward to having him back in the races.”

“The UCI didn’t get back to us, and neither did the Swiss federation, about what the situation was. It was delicate because no one could figure out how he came back with such a high number. It was taking ages, and for us as a team, we wanted to know what the situation was. Because he wasn’t disqualified, we sent him to the race. The very day he started to race, the case was handed over to the Swiss federation, so that helped speed things up. I think that where this new organization [Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation] is going to help speed things up, and keep things up to date. It’s unfortunate that things take so long.”

Indeed Ulissi’s return may be crucial to the team’s success this season, as without him, even more pressure would be put on the shoulders of Sacha Modolo and Rui Costa, the team’s other two big names, to win races.

Copeland says that the team fully believes in the Italian and that they trust that he didn’t dope and just made a mistake in going over the allowed limit.

“From day one, we’ve always trusted him, and we knew that it was a situation that was never doping. We believed in him. We knew this was something that was not done on purpose, and we’ve stayed by his side. We know the type of rider that Ulissi is. He’s been with the Lampre organization since he finished juniors, and we know him as an athlete really well. We knew it was a situation that couldn’t have been a positive like everyone was saying. We have full trust and faith in him. We know the class and talent he has. It’s important to remember, he won two stages in the Giro and finished second in the time trial, and all those tests were negative. It was the day he had a big crash [stage 11], so for him to have a funny number like that didn’t add up.”

Copeland says Ulissi has struggled over the last few months and that the Italian rider cant wait for March to get back in the saddle and put on a race number again.

“He was really been down in the dumps. He went through a tough time. He found himself in a situation where your image gets damaged, when he couldn’t prove that in reality was very different than what some people thought. For him, he’s very relieved to be back. As a team, we are very happy to have a rider of his class back with us. We’re looking forward to seeing what he can do.”

Copeland says that what has happened has definitely changed Ulissi and helped him to mature. Copeland is hopeful this will spur Ulissi on and help him take even greater results when he returns from his ban.

“It’s absolutely changed him. These kinds of things are never nice for anyone to go through. He’s had to confront a lot, and I think he’s matured from it. He can be more mature in the group, on the bike, and when he gets back into racing, he will have even more fighting spirit. He’s realized how important it is to be in the peloton. Many riders have stayed close to him, because they know it couldn’t have been a true positive case. The feeling I get, he really wants to get back, and show everyone his true talent. He will be even stronger than before.”