The Milanese cyclist Andrea Piccolo was fired on the spot by his team, Ef Education-EasyPost, one of the most important in the two-wheel panorama. The 23-year-old would have been stopped at airport customs with packages of growth hormone, a substance that is particularly prohibited for cycling professionals and of which there had been no traces for years. Piccolo had hidden the packages in his car, as reported by Corriere della Sera, according to which the story dates back to a few days ago. Now the decision of team manager Ef Vaughters, to which Piccolo responded with a message in Spanish reported by the escapecollective.com website: «Jonathan, I’m speaking to you sincerely because I have already lost everything and I am aware of it. I brought four drugs from Colombia that I don’t want to name, I want to take responsibility for this fact. They found them and confiscated them at the airport.”
Red leader’s jersey at the 2023 Vuelta, Piccolo was considered one of the most promising cyclists in the blue environment. From the team’s press release it emerged that already during the Giro d’Italia, Piccolo had been suspended without pay from all the team’s competitions. But the sanction had never been revealed in public. The accusation in that case was of “use of drugs to stimulate sleep, not prohibited but used without notifying the club doctor and therefore violating the internal regulations”. Piccolo was expected to attend the Italian Overall Championships in Florence tomorrow, June 23rd. Criminal proceedings are inevitable for him.
