Recently crowned Italian regional road champion Gianluca Vizzari has been provisionally suspended after NADO Italia reports he failed an anti-doping test for the banned drug Tramadol.

Online results show that on 29 June 2025 in the city of Sora the 33 year-old won the Centro Sportivo Italiano (CSI) Road Championship in the M1 masters category. A week later he returned to the top of the podium with a win at Memorial Franco Martano.

Tramadol is a controlled substance widely prescribed as a synthetic opioid painkiller that was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List in 2024, but only banned from use in–competition. 

Based on studies performed by WADA, the washout period for Tramadol is ~24 hours. This is the time on average after taking Tramadol for it to washout of the body to a level that should not return a positive in-competition anti-doping test result, though that is not a guarantee.

In his tell-all book Shadows on the Road, former WorldTour professional Michael Barry describes using Tramadol “as performance-enhancing as any banned drug,” claiming “it kills the pain in your legs and you can push really hard.”

Until a court hearing is held and a final ruling issued by the Italian Anti-Doping Tribunal, Vizzari is prohibited from participating in sport in any capacity.

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