Torri replaced as CONI's anti-doping prosecutor

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Ettore Torri has been replaced as the Italian Olympic Committee’s anti-doping prosecutor following a CONI assembly in Rome on Tuesday. Torri’s replacement is 55-year-old Tammaro Maiello, a prosecutor with the Court of Audit in Rome.

The 80-year-old Torri had served in the role since 2006. Before joining CONI, Torri worked as an investigative magistrate in the Italian penal sector.

Under Torri’s stewardship, CONI was to the forefront in suspending riders who were implicated in the Operacion Puerto blood doping investigation. Ivan Basso and Michele Scarponi served suspensions after admitting their links to Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes.

Alejandro Valverde was also suspended when CONI matched his DNA to blood bags seized from Fuentes. Valverde was tested by CONI when the Tour de France visited Pratonevoso in 2008.

Torri stoked controversy in 2010 when he asserted that doping was still widespread in cycling and would never be eradicated fully, although a little over a year later he acknowledged that some progress was being made.

Changes were also made to the structure of CONI’s National Anti-Doping Tribunal in Tuesday’s meeting. Francesco Plotino has stepped down as president and the body has been broken into two sections – one to deal with amateur athletes, the other to deal with professionals.

Vini Fantini management and Monsalve called to Rome

Meanwhile, the Italian Cycling Federation (FCI) has called members of Vini Fantini-Selle Italia’s management to Rome to discuss Mauro Santambrogio’s positive test for EPO during the Giro d’Italia.

Directeur sportif Luca Scinto, manager Angelo Citracca, team doctor Daniele Tarsi and sponsor Valentino Sciotti have all been summoned to Rome on June 20 for a hearing led by federal prosecutor Giovanni Grauso.

Scinto, Citracca and Tarsi already appeared before Grauso last week to discuss Danilo Di Luca’s positive test for EPO in an out-of-competition control before the Giro. News of Santambrogio’s case broke while the Di Luca hearing was taking place.

Sciotti was not present at that hearing, but will also appear before the FCI on June 14 to answer questions on his team’s decision to hire Di Luca the week before the Giro began.

Riders Jonathan Monsalve and Fabio Taborre have also been called to Rome to discuss the Di Luca positive, as they were his room-mates on the eve of the GP Larciano and Giro di Toscana, respectively, the races he competed in the weekend before his positive test for EPO. Monsalve will not appear before the FCI until after July 5, as he is currently in Colombia.