Team Boss AngryFabrizio Furlan, head of the MG Technogym team who were fined on Monday after one of their riders failed a blood test, threatened his men with the sack on Tuesday.MG's Mauro Santaromita, who Furlan said will also now be fined by his team, was one of three riders whose blood test on Sunday revealed unusually high haemoglobin levels at the start of the Paris-Nice. The tests had been carried out to deter the use of EPO, or erythropoietin, a drug produced to treat kidney disease and used to increase oxygen-carrying red blood cell levels which improve endurance. Furlan said: "If this sort of episode were to happen again, the athlete, irrespective of their name and their sporting repuation, will be sacked automatically, without any further warning. "After seven years of sponsorship in top level professional sport, this company has no intention of damaging its positive public image, one built up by years of sweat and hard work," he said in a statement. "Doping has always been censured by MG Technogym and the company believes the UCI (International Cycling Union) has taken an important and valid way forward with blood testing." As for Santaromita, Furlan said: "He will be fined in proportion to the damage he has done to our public image and the seriousness of what happened." He will rejoin the team after serving out a two-week suspension by the UCI. Santaromita, fellow Italian Luca Colombo and Frenchman Erwan Mentheour gave samples which showed red blood cell levels in excess of the 50 percent limit. The riders, who were the first victims of new rules which mean a two-week ban for failing the test, were fined 1,000 Swiss francs (480 dollars) and their teams fined 40,000 Swiss francs by the UCI. Haemoglobin tests were introduced at the request of riders at the end of January as part of the fight against the use of EPO in the sport. |