Cyclist Doper Di Luca banned for life

Italian cyclist Danilo Di Luca was on Thursday banned for life after testing positive for the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO) before this year's Tour of Italy. The punishment was meted out by the Italian Olympic Committee (Coni). Di Luca, 37, failed the control in an out of competition test on April 29, forcing him to quit the Giro d'Italia. The Italian has already served two bans for doping incidents in the past, including a positive test for EPO in 2009. As well as the life ban, Di Luca was also fined 35,000 euros - his results since mid-April have been erased from the record books. Source: AFP