LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Italian cyclist Francesco De Bonis has lost his appeal against a two-year ban for doping based on blood-test results from his biological passport.
A Court of Arbitration for Sport panel has dismissed De Bonis’s arguments and confirmed that the passport “is a reliable means of proving an anti-doping violation.”
CAS upheld an Italian Olympic Committee ruling to ban De Bonis. The suspension took effect in June 2009 and expired last week. De Bonis was among the first riders caught by the International Cycling Union’s pioneering blood-profiling scheme.
He never tested positive for a banned drug but was sanctioned based on suspicious results from blood samples taken between November 2008 and May 2009.
