Italian Olympic committee summons Saronni and Cunego to answer doping charges

The Italian Olympic Committee, CONI, has announced that 2004 Giro d’Italia winner Damiano Cunego and former Lampre-ISD team manager Giuseppe Saronni will appear before its anti-doping prosecutor next month to answer charges resulting from a three-year investigation into doping based in Mantova.

Following the enquiry, public prosecutor Antonio Condorelli requested that charges be brought against 32 people accused of doping, including the former Rabobank rider Michael Rasmussen and ex-world champion Alessandro Ballan of BMC Racing.

Besides Saronni and Cunego, four other suspects will appear before CONI in the first week of September and it is likely that others will be called.

Two-time Giro winner and former world champion Saronni, who resigned his position with Lampre in April as a result of his being implicated in the Mantova enquiry, stands accused of having procured performance enhancing substances.