Cycling scandal: Andrea Piccolo, caught at the Italian border with banned substances, expelled from his team

Scandal in the cycle. The American team EF Education-EasyPost has reported that it has abruptly terminated its broker contract Andrea Piccolo. The reason is none other than the attitude of the people Magenta corridor.

This is the statement published by the cycling team on social networks: “EF Pro Cycling immediately terminated the contract with Andrea Piccolo. Piccolo was suspended without pay in March after taking a sleeping pill that was not approved by the team, even though it was legal. “The team informed the UCI, but due to legal reasons related to the rider’s standard contract with the UCI, we were unable to terminate the contract.”

In this way, and after serving his suspension, Piccolo returned to Giro competition, leaving the Corsa Rosa after stage 19 which he did not finish. They couldn’t imagine within their team what was going to happen. “Piccolo was detained on June 21 upon entering the country on suspicion of carrying growth hormone (a substance banned by the UCI). Our team will fully cooperate with any investigation into the matter and we encourage Andrea to be open and honest with anti-government authorities.

SUBSTANCE PROHIBITED BY UCI

Human growth hormone is a prohibited substance under class S2 peptide hormones, growth factors, related substances and mimetics on the Prohibited List maintained by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and adopted by the UCI. “The UCI handed over the operational activities of its anti-doping program to the ITA in January 2021. Since then, efforts in the clean sport of cycling have been led by the ITA Cycling Unit, which is specifically focused on all disciplines. of cycling. The UCI and the ITA are linked by a services agreement which guarantees that the ITA operates separately,” the UCI explained in its statement.

This season Piccolo competed a total of 34 days and his best result was 2nd place in the second stage of Return to Colombia. The test in Colombia was the only race stage he completed this season, as he did not finish O Great Roaddid not appear in the fifth episode of Paris-Beautiful and did not finish the 19th stage of I turned back, after suffering a heavy fall; just finished Laigueglia trophywhere he finished 40th.

UCI statement

While waiting for Andrea Piccolo to speak, yes, the International Cycling Union (UCI), with this statement: “The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has drawn attention to the statement made by UCI WorldTeam EF Education–EasyPost on June 21, 2024, announcing the immediate termination of the team’s contract with Italian cyclist Andrea Piccolo due to suspected transportation of human growth hormone (hGH). The search for the cyclist was the result of an investigation led by the International Control Agency (ITA) and his close collaboration with Italian National Anti-Doping Organization (NADO Italy) and the Italian police authorities (NAS Carabinieri). The UCI welcomes this cooperation and will review any further action that may be required in this regard. “The UCI will not make any further comment on this matter.”