Italy's Riccardo Riccò given career-ending 12-year cycling ban

Italian 28-year-old rider found guilty of blood doping
Riccò botched blood transfusion that almost killed him
Riccardo Ricco
Riccardo Ricco was kicked off the 2008 Tour de France and was sacked in 2011 by the Vacansoleil team. Photograph: Eric Cabanis/AFP/Getty Images

Italy's Riccardo Riccò has been handed a 12-year ban by the Italian anti-doping agency, effectively ending his career. He was also fined €5,000 (£4,088) and ordered to pay legal costs of €15,000.

The Tribunale Nazionale Antidoping found the 28-year-old guilty of blood doping after he was sacked by the Vacansoleil team last year. Doctors said he had botched a blood transfusion on himself that nearly killed him.

Riccò, 28, was kicked off the 2008 Tour de France while in second place after failing a test for the blood-booster Cera and served a 20-month ban from cycling and was also tried and fined €5,710 euros (£4,667) by a court in Padua. Riccò has not raced since he was rushed to a hospital after falling ill at his home at his home near Modena in February 2011.

The doctor who treated him reportedly told police he confessed to using transfusions of his own blood, which he allegedly kept in his fridge.