Ricco receives punishment

Toulouse - Disgraced Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco on Tuesday received a two-month suspended sentence and a €3 000-euro fine from a French court for having taken EPO during the 2008 Tour de France.

An appeal court here upheld an initial ruling, although increased to €4 000 euros the damages the 27-year-old Ricco will have to pay to the French cycling federation.

Ricco tested positive for banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin) during the 2008 Tour, and was arrested by French police before the Lavelanet-Narbonne stage in southwest France.

Police found a masking product, syringes and injection kit in his bedroom, and the great young of hope of Italian cycling was handed a 20-month ban.

Ricco was in June also suspended by his country's national Olympic committee's (CONI) anti-doping body amid reports that he tried to give himself a blood transfusion.