The dark days of doping return to Italian cycling

It was just one week ago when Vicenzo Nibali rode into Brescia to claim his maiden Giro d’Italia title and his second Grand Tour victory.

Nibali’s masterful and controlled race held many similarities to Wiggins’ victory in the 2012 Tour de France and his lead was rarely threatened once he claimed the ‘Maglia Rosa’.

His victory was so emphatic that it was held up as a symbol of hope for the renaissance of Italian cycling in the media.

Italian cycling was clearly on a high and the positive drug test of Danilo Di Luca was not going to rain on those celebrations.

That was until Mauro Santambrigio became the second Italian cyclist to test positive to a banned substance.

He also became the second rider from Italian pro-continental team, Vini Fantini Selle-Italia, to test positive during the race.

Santambrigio certainly rose to prominence in 2013. He went from a domestique in BMC to a Giro stage winner. But there were rumours in the peloton that all was not right from the very first stage with Santambrigio.

It took 28 days from those rumours to become a reality.

Vini Fantini is lucky that they are not a World Tour team or they may be facing a large financial penalty for this second indiscretion.

Ag2R-La Mondiale is forfeiting its participation in the Critérium du Dauphiné after two of its riders failed drug tests in a 12-month period.

It was a self-imposed ban to escape a financial penalty levied under the rules of the Movement for Credible Cycling.

Ultimately, Santambrigio could be responsible for sending the small Italian team to the dustbin of history. Sponsors will now be thinking twice about remaining with Vini Fantini.

Vini Fantini sports director Luca Scinto admitted it to Tuttobiciweb.it, “Everything’s finished, the whole project is finished”.

“What do you want me to tell you, I’m distraught, I’m ruined.

“I defended him like no other rider before because from (the Giro start in) Naples there were awful rumours about him going around the peloton.”

Santambrigio now joins a long list of discredited Italian cyclists – Riccardo Ricco, Ivan Basso, Emmanule Selle, Davide Rebellion, Danilo Di Luca and Marco Pantani to name a few.

So where does this leave Italian cycling now? It is clear that the drug-tainted era has not passed.

The Italian authorities are not treating this doping problem seriously enough. Bans are too lenient and do not provide a strong enough deterrent to riders to bypass hard work in their effort to get to the top.

This can explains why the Anti-Doping Tribunal of the Italian Olympic Committee reduced Di Luca ban from two years to nine9 months for cooperation.

One aspect that needs to be addressed is why it took 28 days for Santambrigio’s test results to be made public. He failed his drug test during the first stage in Napoli.

Test results must be processed more quickly so these disgraced riders do not influence the race outcome.

Doping still remains the scourge of cycling, which was shown by the reaction of the riders in the peloton after the news of Santambrigio broke.

It must be stamped out. But this will occur when the Italian anti-doping authorities finally take a serious stance on these cases.

That means giving a lifetime ban to Di Luca and banning Santambrigio for an extended period.

Anything less and the renaissance of Italian cycling will be very short-lived.