April 17, 2008 (Rome, Italy) — Italian cyclist, Danilo Di Luca (L.P.R. Brakes), was acquitted yesterday by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) court of last instance on doping charges stemming from the 2007 Giro reports AFP. If the 32-year-old all round cyclist had been convicted, this would have resulted in a two-year ban from professional cycling.

Nicknamed “the killer,” Di Luca won the 2007 Giro while riding for Liquigas. After the race, it was revealed that he had tested with unusually low levels of an unspecified hormone on stage 17 of the tour. This “anomalous” test result led to suspicion that Di Luca was resorting to a masking agent to hide doping activity.

The CONI court found that this anomalous test did not constitute a doping offence and that there was not a sufficient degree of proof to convict the cyclist. Di Luca declared that he has suffered a lot in the past year, but is happy again. He also stated that victories are the best cure for unhappiness. He already tasted victory this year, winning the Lombardic Cycling Week.

In a separate affair, Di Luca was handed a three-month suspension last year for his role in the ‘Oil for Drugs’ scandal centering around Dr. Carlo Santuccione. Di Luca had been leading the 2007 UCI individual points ranking until he was suspended from racing on October 16 due to this scandal. He has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to retroactively overturn that conviction. In 2004, Di Luca was not invited to the Tour de France because of suspicion of doping then. On September 27, 2007, Di Luca withdrew from UCI Road World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany because of these doping allegations.

For more on this story AFP or Wikipedia.