Lampre riders, staff cleared in doping trial: reports

Amid the Mantova doping trial, former Giro d’Italia winner Damiano Cunego, Agence France-Presse reports, and 2008 world champion Alessandro Ballan were cleared of any wrongdoing on Friday, Dec. 18, along with many other Lampre riders and staff members.

Pharmacist Guido Nigrelli, however, as well as amateur cyclist Sebastian Gilmozzi were not acquitted, reports say.

A lack of evidence was cited in the acquittal of the other defendants, which included the team’s manager Giuseppe Saronni. Nigrelli, meanwhile, was given a suspended prison sentence of eight months for his role at the heart of the controversy, being the individual who ran the pharmacy in Mantova, Italy—the focal point of the investigation. Gilmozzi received a sentence of five months

Before and during the trial, which began in Dec. 2013, the accused were said to have been “in collaboration with each other,” and to have “bought, administered or otherwise favoured the use of doping products…with the aim of altering the sporting performances of Lampre athletes,” prosectutor Antonuio Condorelli had argued.

In all, 28 individuals in connection with the Lampre team were charged when the trial began.

(AFP)