Italy's Danilo di Luca has been handed a lifetime ban by Italy's Olympic Committee (CONI), six weeks after being handed it to Italian TV Italia 1television gave an interview that may upset some and infuriate others. According to the daily newspaper Journal of Sport are During the conversation, Di Luca stated that around 90 percent of all Giro d'Italia riders were doped. The remaining ten percent, according to the former cycling star, who was convicted of three cases of doping, "don't care about the Giro, they prepare for other races."
“The best thing would be to legalize doping. Then everyone would be on the same playing field.”
Di Luca also stated that it would be impossible to finish the Giro in the top 10 without doping. “The best thing would be to legalize doping. Then everyone would be on the same playing field.", he tried to underline his train of thought. "I've always been a champion, I've won many times. But when I switched from amateurs to pros, all of a sudden riders I had beaten a month earlier were stronger than me.” This review is a reflection of Di Luca's intransigence, who probably hopes that this interview will also gain understanding for his case. Regarding his positive EPO result during the last Giro, he states that the riders now have to take care of the products themselves. Large-scale systems like the Festina and US Postal days no longer exist.
With his interview, Di Luca understandably calls drivers of the so-called new generation onto the tableau. Above all, the American Andrew Talansky (Gramin-Sharp), who gave the Italian a "scum bag", a "bastard" named, who causes damage to cycling with his intransigence.
Reigning Giro d'Italia winner Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) described the comments as "ramblings of a desperate man." Although he acknowledged him as a formerly good teammate, he is "probably something broken in the head." According to Nibali, the Di Lucas interview is an attempt to monetize his situation.
Di Luca had already served two doping-related penalties before being suspended in early December. His greatest successes, which can certainly be questioned in retrospect, include the Giro d'Italia 2007, the Amstel Gold Race 2005, the Walonian Arrow 2005 and Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2007.