BMC puts suspended rider back in action

Italian professional cyclist Mauro Santambrogio has been reinstated by his team, BMC, after an internal investigation cleared him of doping.

Santambrogio had been suspended by managers of the Swiss-American squad, while they looked into a case involving the rider’s former team, Lampre.

BMC said on Sunday that it had completed a preliminary investigation and found “there is no indication that Mauro Santambrogio was involved in any doping”.

“We are pleased that the findings have turned up no evidence of wrong-doing,” team president Jim Ochowicz said in a statement. “It encourages us to enter Mauro Santambrogio in the Giro d’Italia.”

The team’s own investigation was in line with what police had found, BMC said.

The team was rocked last week by the revelation that a young Swiss rider, Thomas Frei, had used the banned endurance-boosting drug, EPO, and had been fired.

Another rider, Italian Alessandro Ballan, was suspended by the team after it learned of his role in an ongoing investigation into an earlier doping case, the same one for which Santambrogio has now been cleared. BMC made no statement about Ballan.

swissinfo.ch