The 53 year-old Italian rider reportedly caught with a hidden motor in his bike on Saturday has denied any wrongdoing, claiming he recently started to do well in local age-related races after resolving a back problem.
Alessandro Andreoli made a series of wild claims in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, which broke the news of the case on Sunday. Andreoli claimed that his rivals may have tipped off race organisers because he had managed to beat them and because of his wealthy lifestyle. He refused to go to a specialist mechanic to have the bike dismantled after being caught, claiming he had to go to a wedding.
According to several reports in Italy, the hidden motor was detected after the race organiser used a thermal camera to scan suspicious bikes. The race was organised under the auspices of the Centro Sportivo Italiano, an amateur sports body affiliated to the Italian Olympic Committee. Emiliano Scalfi, the vice-president of the CSI in the province of Brescia, intimated that the body had acted on a tip-off and decided to deploy an expensive heat gun provided by a local businessman and cycling fan.
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"We had some precise information and we proceeded accordingly," Scalfi La Gazzetta dello Sport. "When we looked, we saw that in the seat tube of one rider it looked as though there was a fire."
Andreoli finished third in the race and was asked to bring his bike to the commissaires for further inspection. They offered to take the biker to a specialist for it to be dismantled but Andreoli refused and reportedly admitted to using mechanical doping.
He backtracked on reports of a confession when speaking to Monday’s La Gazzetta dello Sport. Another report on Corriere.it, claimed Andreoli said he would suspend himself from racing until formal investigation and eventual trial is held.
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