Luca Paolini is hoping for leniency from the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal when it meets in Geneva on Friday to consider his anti-doping violation for cocaine.
The Italian tested positive for cocaine during the Tour de France and so faces at least a two-year ban but Paolini and his lawyers hope for a further reduction, perhaps opening the door to a possible return to the professional peloton. Paolini refused to accept a two-year ban and so his case will become one of the first-ever cases heard by the UCI’s Anti-Doping Tribunal and not by athlete’s national Federation or Olympic Committee.
Cocaine is classified as a banned substance in competition under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code but athletes are only banned if they test positive for the social drug out of competition. Paolini has claimed he took cocaine at a personal training camp in June and claimed it occurred at a low point in his life after several years of addiction to the sleeping medicine Minias (Benzodiazepine).
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Since being suspended from racing following his A-sample test, Paolini has undergone treatment for his addiction to the sleeping medication. In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport on December 28 he revealed he had been addicted to the drug for a number of years despite managing to win Gent-Wevelgem and continue a successful career with Katusha.
“It all started with sleeping pills, whose main active ingredient is benzodiazepine but this creates an addiction,” he explained. “I needed a good night's rest to meet the physical and mental effort the next day. I started in 2004 when my brother died.
“The worst occurs at night. When benzodiazepine gains power I lose lucidity. And then came the cocaine. For me, it was inevitable. I did it almost without realizing it. I was alone that night, I was alone during the two weeks of training in the mountains in mid-June, before the Tour, when I took cocaine. And I cannot forgive myself. I am a husband, father, and a prominent sportsman, I had to be an example, I betrayed a generation that believed in me. This is what hurts me."
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