Alessandro Ballan has admitted that he is “very bitter” at being the only rider to serve a suspension as a direct result of the long-running Mantova anti-doping investigation and claimed that his ban was for “a mistake” rather than a doping offence.
Phone taps from the Italian police investigation, which began in 2010 and was centred on the links between the Lampre team and Mantova-based pharmacist Guido Nigrelli, suggested that Ballan had undergone a blood transfusion in the spring of 2009, a period when the then world champion was withdrawn from racing by his team.
Ballan later admitted to undergoing ozone therapy to treat cytomegalovirus though he claimed that it did not constitute blood doping. He was eventually handed a two-year suspension by the Italian Olympic Committee in January 2014. The start date was later backdated to August 2013 following an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, meaning that the Italian’s ban expires next Monday.
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Some 28 individuals are facing criminal trial as a result of the investigation, including past and present riders Mauro Santambrogio, Damiano Cunego and Marzio Bruseghin, Lampre manager Giuseppe Saronni and current Omega Pharma-QuickStep doctor José Ibarguen, but Ballan is the only rider thus far to serve a sporting sanction as a result of the inquiry.
“I’m very bitter about that because I was the only person who went before the judge and told the truth, that I underwent a therapy because I was ill, and I was the only one who was banned,” Ballan told Cyclingnews. “Maybe if I’d said nothing and stayed quiet, I’d have been able to keep racing. Unfortunately, I went in good faith, because honestly I didn’t think I committed such a big crime because I was at home, away from racing, withheld by my team [at the time of the blood transfusion - ed.] Sometimes honesty isn’t rewarded.”
Ballan accepted, however, that regardless of his attempted justification, CONI was entitled to suspend him for the infraction.
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