Cycling: Ricco suspended by Olympic committee

He was on Wednesday by the Italian cycling federation on health grounds

ROME: Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco was suspended by his country’s national Olympic committee’s (CONI) anti-doping body. The ban applies to events inside Italy as well as abroad. The 27-year-old Ricco had already been suspended on Wednesday by the Italian cycling federation on health grounds, four months after he underwent emergency treatment for kidney trouble. Ricco won two stages at the 2008 Tour de France but he was thrown off the race after a positive test for Cera EPO (erythropoietin).

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2011.