Luca Paolini receives 18-month doping ban

Italian cyclist Luca Paolini has been banned for 18 months after testing positive for cocaine at last year’s Tour de France.

The former Katusha rider, aged 39, admitted in December last year to having used cocaine after initially becoming addicted to sleeping pills following the death of his brother in 2004.

He said he took cocaine while on a pre-Tour de France training camp in June.

The UCI announced the decision of its Anti-Doping Tribunal today, four months after it had referred the case and nine months after Paolini’s positive test.

It said: “The Anti-Doping Tribunal found the rider guilty of a non-intentional anti-doping rule violation (presence of a cocaine metabolite - benzoylecgonine) and imposed an 18-month period of ineligibility on the rider.”

In this context, “non-intentional” signifies that Paolini was found not to be seeking a competitive advantage, rather than he did not deliberately mean to take cocaine, which is only banned in competition.

The UCI said that it would publish the full decision shortly.

Earlier in 2015, Paolini had won Gent-Wevelgem, perhaps the biggest success in a career in which he has also won the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and a stage apiece in the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta.