Danilo Di Luca without filters - "I didn’t kill anyone. A lifetime ban is disproportionate"

Danilo Di Luca, winner of the Giro d'Italia and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2007, has spoken openly once again about his career, modern cycling and the lifetime suspension for doping. In an interview with Spanish newspaper AS, the former Italian rider was blunt, sharp and showed no intention of rewriting his past.

Now 49, he lives in Pescara and works in the high-end bicycle business. But he still watches cycling with the same intensity as in his racing days, even while carrying the burden of being permanently banned from the sport that made him famous.

Despite winning the Giro de Italia in 2007, Di Luca admits that victory in Liège-Bastogne-Liège that same year still holds a special place.

“My memories are intact. It was, without doubt, the most beautiful race I won in my professional years.”

The Italian explained that it took him nine years to finally win the Belgian Classic after first racing it as a professional. “When I rode it for the first time, I told myself immediately: sooner or later I have to win this.”

In 2004, he came close, but a physical issue prevented him from even starting.

“That year I was fourth in the Amstel Gold Race, third in La Flèche Wallonne, and I believed I could win Liège. But the night before I had a prostate problem and didn’t race.”

When he finally triumphed, he felt he had completed something unfinished. “It was the stone missing to build the house.”

Even though he won Italy’s biggest race, Di Luca places the Ardennes Monument above the Giro in emotional terms.

“For an Italian, the Giro is everything. The most important race in the world. But I choose Liège because all the emotions are concentrated into one day.”

Speaking about the three-week Grand Tour, he said he already knew victory was within reach before the finish.

“In my case, I knew long before that I was going to win. I could already feel it in the days before arriving in Milan.”

Asked about young talents capable of challenging Tadej Pogacar, Di Luca was direct when discussing Paul Seixas.

“For now, no. Maybe he can be second when Pogacar is there. Winning when Tadej doesn’t race, yes.”

He then underlined the current level of the Slovenian star. “To beat the Slovenian right now is impossible. Maybe when his decline begins in a few years.”

One of the strongest parts of the interview came when he compared modern cycling to his own era. For Di Luca, the sport has lost spontaneity and humanity. “The riders of today are robots.”

In his view, everything revolves around numbers, data and total control. “What matters now are values: watts, kilometres, how much they ate during the race…”

By contrast, he described the peloton of his era as more unpredictable. “We were more human. We looked more at our rivals than at numbers. It was more beautiful for the fans. There were attacks from one hundred kilometres out, there was improvisation.”

He also believes winners are easier to predict now. “If Pogacar is there, he wins.”

Di Luca also expressed concern about the decline of cycling in countries that historically dominated the sport, such as Italy and Spain.

“There is very little to work with. Everything has changed. There is no competitiveness.”

According to the Italian, the root of the problem lies in youth development. “Everything starts at the base, with the federation.”

He then delivered a striking line about the current situation in his homeland. “If a child tells his father he wants to start cycling, the father says no.”

For Di Luca, cycling now truly lives above all in Belgium. “I was at the Tour of Flanders and everything is still the same: the crowd, the passion, the aura. In Italy everything has changed.”

One of the most controversial statements came when he returned to an opinion he has expressed before: he believes he would have achieved even more without doping.

“Without doping, the champion shines even more. With doping everything becomes flatter, more balanced.”

In his view, banned substances reduced the natural gap between elite talent and ordinary riders. “Without it, the difference between a champion and a normal rider is much bigger.”

Di Luca was suspended multiple times for doping offences and was permanently banned in 2013. He still considers the punishment excessive. “After thirteen years, I still don’t understand the lifetime ban.”

He continued. “In life we all make mistakes. Then enough is enough. I didn’t kill anyone. I work, I have a family… The rest is disproportionate. I am a good person.”

At the end of the interview, he reflected on his personality and how he channelled anger and frustration throughout his career.

“Yes, exactly. In some way, I feel like an artist.”

A sentence that sums up the contradictory figure Danilo Di Luca still is: talented, controversial, punished, and incapable of speaking neutrally about the sport that made him famous.