{"id":836076,"date":"2026-07-30T14:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/836076\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T14:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:52:13","slug":"former-pro-with-ties-to-the-uae-suspended-for-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/836076\/","title":{"rendered":"Former pro with ties to the UAE suspended for 20 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Danilo Napolitano has been suspended for 20 years by the Italian anti-doping authorities. The former Italian professional cyclist received the lengthy sanction after becoming involved in a major doping<\/a> case at a prominent Italian junior team. The retired sprinter had until recently been working with UAE Team L\u2019Imad, the women\u2019s team formerly known as UAE Team ADQ.<\/p>\n

Napolitano raced professionally from 2001 until 2017, representing teams including Lampre, Katusha, Acqua & Sapone and Wanty-Groupe Gobert. He recorded 38 professional victories in total, with his stage win at the 2007 Giro d\u2019Italia the biggest result of his career. After retiring from racing, he began working as a sports director in Italy\u2019s junior cycling scene.<\/p>\n

That role took him to Salus Ciclistica Seregno ASD, one of Italy\u2019s leading development teams. He had been associated with the squad since ending his racing career, but NADO Italia, the country\u2019s anti-doping agency, provisionally suspended Napolitano and team president Marco Moretto in April as part of a significant doping investigation.<\/p>\n

Napolitano was accused of possessing a prohibited substance and administering, or attempting to administer, a banned substance to an athlete. The case was particularly serious because the World Anti-Doping Code states that an offence involving the administration of a prohibited substance to a minor can result in a lifetime ban. Following its investigation, however, the Italian authorities imposed a 20-year suspension.<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"danilo-napolitano\"\/Napolitano worked for UAE Team L\u2019ImadMoretto received an eight-year suspension. NADO Italia has not publicly released further details about the case, but Napolitano\u2019s recent employment makes the situation more complicated. According to road.cc<\/a>, Napolitano had been working on a freelance basis at UAE Team L\u2019Imad\u2019s service course since late 2025. His role was described as that of a warehouse worker and staff assistant. The publication subsequently contacted the women\u2019s team about his involvement.<\/p>\n

Team management said it had been unaware of the anti-doping investigation involving Napolitano. It was also stressed that the alleged offences took place before he began working with UAE Team L\u2019Imad. Napolitano\u2019s brother, Massimiliano, works for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, where he has served as a soigneur for more than 20 years, dating back to the organisation\u2019s time as Lampre.<\/p>\n

A source connected to the women\u2019s team said Napolitano had not worked with the squad at any races during the season, although road.cc reported that he continued carrying out work for the organisation while the investigation was ongoing. The team reportedly only learned about the case on Wednesday, while travelling to Switzerland for the start of the Tour de France Femmes. A UAE Team Emirates-XRG spokesperson also clarified that Napolitano had never worked for the men\u2019s team, which operates separately from the women\u2019s organisation. There is no indication of wrongdoing by either UAE Team L\u2019Imad or UAE Team Emirates-XRG.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Danilo Napolitano has been suspended for 20 years by the Italian anti-doping authorities. The former Italian professional cyclist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,37490,82],"class_list":["post-836076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-doping","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}