ROME (AP) — Italian police have carried out a series of raids on cyclists linked to banned physician Michele Ferrari.
The cyclists targeted include Michele Scarponi — a title contender for this year’s Giro d’Italia — and Lampre teammate Leonardo Bertagnolli, as well as five current and past Russian riders with the Katusha team.
The teams confirmed that police inspected the riders’ biological passports and confiscated anti-inflammatories, powdered milk and energy bars.
The raids were carried out Thursday in Sicily and northern Italy. No arrests were made.
In 2006, Ferrari was cleared of charges of sports fraud, pharmacological doping and abuse of his profession as a pharmacist. But he was banned for life by the Italian Olympic Committee.