Cycling:Giro d'Italia winner Danilo Di Luca has been given a three-month ban for doping offences, the Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) has confirmed.
The 31-year-old was suspended today after a hearing at the Rome offices of Coni, the governing body for all sport in Italy, for his links with Carlo Santuccione, a doctor accused of supplying doping products to athletes.
"Coni's Final Appeal Judge (GUI) for doping has inflicted a three-month ban on the athlete Danilo Di Luca starting from today," Coni said on its website ( www.coni.it).
The ruling means the ProTour leader will miss the competition's last race of the season, Saturday's Giro di Lombardia in northern Italy.
"I'm disappointed. It is an injustice," Di Luca told reporters. "I'm absolutely convinced of my innocence".
Di Luca was forced to pull out of the road cycling world championships in Stuttgart just three days before they started last month, after Coni's anti-doping chief Ettore Torri charged the Liquigas rider.
Torri had asked for a four-month ban.