Italian cyclist Gilberto Simoni has been suspended by his Saeco team after failing a second doping test for cocaine. Simoni, 30, was forced to quit the Giro before stage 12 on May 24 after the first analysis of a World Anti-Doping Agency test, taken on April 24, found traces of cocaine.
A separate sample, taken on May 21 after the ninth stage of the Giro from Tivoli to Caserta, also tested positive for cocaine, his team announced on Friday. In a press conference on Saturday team manager Claudio Corti said: "Saeco-Longoni Sport announce the suspension from racing of Gilberto Simoni and the freezing of his salary until a substantial and definitive explanation of the developments of the case."
"I saw Simoni last night in Rovereto. He gave us his version of events and we've taken out decision. I don't want to enter into details but it's not our intention to defend him. He's got to explain things, say what has happened and accept his responsibility," Corti added.
After the first positive test Simoni, last year's Giro winner, denied that he had taken cocaine, blaming the traces of the drug on a local anaesthetic injection given by his dentist.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
