1998 Tour de France winner Marco Pantani has been found guilty of doping charges and given a three month jail sentence, which has been suspended pending an appeal. The charges arose when blood tests taken after the Italian cyclist’s bad crash in the 1995 Milan-Turin race showed that his hematocrit level was 60 percent, strongly indicating the use of the banned hormone EPO.
Pantani is a somewhat controversial figure in cycling; the most gifted climbing specialist of his generation, he was thrown off the 1999 Tour of Italy two days from winning the race when his red blood cell count was above the permitted 50 percent level. After a period of depression, he returned to competition this spring and won two of the hardest mountain stages in the Tour de France.
Although he then pulled out of the race with a stomach complaint, Pantani has declared that he is aiming to win the 2001 edition of the race. Yesterday's ruling has however quashed this ambition; in addition to the threatened three month jail sentence the diminutive Italian faces a six month ban from competition.
Pantani’s Mercantone Uno team have declared that they will appeal the judge’s declaration of sporting fraud, which is considered a crime under Italian law.
Filed by Sinéad Gleeson
