35 year-old top Italian gran fondo rider Fabio Cini (Team Promotech Mg Kvis) has retained a lawyer and plans to fight NADO Italia doping charges after he allegedly testing positive for the banned anabolic steroid Stanozolol on 17 February and was preliminarily suspended.

Italian news site Quotidiano del Molise reports that the amateur cyclist rejected a plea deal offered by NADO Italia, instead paying approximately €2300 to have his B Sample analyzed – which returned the same positive test result for Stanozolol. In addition, Cini is now represented and defended by lawyer Guido Rossi as the case moves before the Italian National Anti-Doping Tribunal.

The lawyer has put forth a seemingly far-fetched conspiracy theory defense for his client based on questionable NADO Italia procedures, non-WADA accredited facilities and suspicious chain of custody events. Rossi claims Cini’s sealed A & B urine samples collected in February were stored in a non-accredited lab accessible to anyone for three days before being sent to the WADA accredited lab in Rome, which then discovered the presence of Stanozolol in both samples.

Rossi told Quotidiano del Molise, “They [NADO Italia] cannot escape, in the eyes of anyone, the obvious oddities that lead us to request further clarifications from the Judiciary, for example, the time frame that goes from 17 to 20 February in relation to the so-called chain of custody. In these three days anything could have happened. The urine samples remained, before arriving in the hands of the [WADA accredited] anti-doping laboratory, for a good three days in a laboratory accessible to anyone.”

The lawyer now plans to ask the judiciary to order further investigations into errors and inconsistencies of NADO Italia operations prior to the examination of Cini’s biological samples.

Photo Credit: NADO Italia, ToscanaCRIT.it

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