Priamo handed four-year ban

The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Thursday handed a four-year ban down to Italian cyclist Matteo Priamo for supplying banned blood booster EPO Cera to former CSF teammate Emmanuelle Sella, an official source said.

The anti-doping prosecutor of the Italian Olympic Committee had taken up the case on appeal after Italy's national anti-doping tribunal decided last January he should be exonerated.

Sella had confessed to using the drug and received a reduced one-year suspension 11 months ago after he agreed to cooperate with the authorities, naming Priamo as his supplier.

The CAS ruled it was "sufficiently established" that Priamo had violated two articles of the World Anti-Doping Code regarding possession and administration of a banned substance to an athlete.

Sella tested positive in July last year shortly after winning three stages of the Tour of Italy.

The start of the suspension for Priamo, 27, is backdated to February 27.

Priamo won a stage of the 2008 Giro at Peschici, where he dedicated the win to Argentine teammate Maximiliano Richeze, who had had a positive dope test just days earlier.

Sella, who tested positive in August 2008, returned to the saddle last August with Italian outfit Carmiooro Style-A.