Piepoli ban confirmed

Leonardo Piepoli has been handed a two-year doping ban by the Italian Olympic Committee.

Veteran Italian rider punished for positive test

Leonardo Piepoli has been handed a two-year ban by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI). Piepoli, 37, twice tested positive for CERA during last July's Tour de France. A statement from CONI confirmed that a tribunal had upheld the anti-doping prosecutor's request that Piepoli should be suspended until January 2011. The Italian rider was sacked by his Saunier Duval team after his compatriot and fellow squad member Riccardo Ricco first failed a test for CERA on the Tour. Piepoli, who won stage 10 of the race at the Hautacam ski station, had not been found to have tested positive at that time but Saunier Duval said he had "violated the team's code of ethics" and quit the race. Ricco has already been banned by CONI for two years but is appealing to the Court of Arbritration for Sport.