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Ricco fired by team after positive test

Italian rider Riccardo Ricco was fired by Saunier-Duval on Friday for testing positive for the banned blood-booster EPO during the Tour de France.

The team said in a statement that it felt it had been a “victim” of irresponsible behavior and denied any involvement in any doping practices.

The team also fired rider Leonardo Piepoli for “violation of the team’s ethical code.”

A team spokesman declined to elaborate.

Team executive Mauro Gianetti expressed “surprise and bitterness” at the news that Ricco had tested positive and said he was sorry to “have been deceived and trusting those who didn’t deserve it.”

He said the team has always monitored its athletes carefully.

“Despite all of our efforts — trusting the effectiveness of internal and external tests — we haven’t been able to avoid this absurd situation and today, as a team, we feel like victims,” Gianetti said.

The team said such behavior put at risk sponsors’ investors that are worth millions of euros. Saunier-Duval had already withdrawn from the Tour de France and suspended all of its activities after Ricco was found positive.

Ricco, who was held overnight by police, was released under judicial watch on Friday after French officials filed preliminary charges against him.

“I slept in jail and then the magistrate listened to all I had to say,” Ricco told Italy’s RAI state TV after being released. “Then they searched my bag, but they didn’t find anything except the usual vitamins we all use, so they decided to send me home.”

Ricco said he would see his lawyer yesterday and get started on his defense. He said he was not surprised by the team’s decision to fire him.

“It’s natural. It’s the minimum. It’s the routine for the teams, that’s what they have to do,” Ricco said. “I’ll be back. I’ll be back stronger than before.”

Ricco, a 24-year-old Italian, won two Tour stages this year. He was the runner-up in the Giro d’Italia and is the biggest name among three cyclists involved in doping cases at this year’s Tour.

He won the sixth and ninth stages and was ninth overall before the start of Thursday’s stage — 2 minutes, 29 seconds behind race leader Cadel Evans of Australia.

Piepoli won the 10th stage of the Tour.

Pierre Bordry, the head of France’s anti-doping agency, said on Friday that Ricco tested positive for CERA, or continuous erythropoietin receptor activator, an advanced version of the blood booster EPO.
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