The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) held a hearing on Alessandro Petacchi's doping case on Wednesday, but will not announce its decision until next month. "It was a long hearing at which all the various aspects of the affair were analysed," a Team Milram spokesman told the Reuters news agency. "The judges said there should be a decision in three or four weeks."
The Italian sprinter tested positive for Salbutamol, an asthma medication, after stage 11 of last year's Giro d'Italia. Petacchi has a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) from the UCI to use the drug, but the amount of the substance found in his body indicated an abuse. The controversy caused him to miss the Tour de France, even if in the end of July the Italian Cycling Federation cleared him of the charges. That decision was appealed to the CAS by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).
