The cyclist’s brother said the cause of death was not yet known, though it might have been a pulmonary embolism. Fois was suspended for doping in 1998, and some performance-enhancing drugs have been linked to such embolisms.This is a rider who had to dope to compete with all the other dopers during cycling's dirtiest era. If Fois' previous use of performance enhancing drugs did lead to his death, it blows a hole in the idea that we can "level the playing" field in sports by making it legal to dope. There's a reason this stuff is not legal for athletes.
Fois was found dead in his bed Friday morning by his mother.
Fois was riding for the Amore e Vita team this year and had participated in several races. He won four minor races and a stage in the Tour of Poland during his professional career, which began in 1996.
The Italian cycling federation suspended Fois for three years starting in 2002 for doping, which he later admitted. Before that suspension, Fois was a teammate of former Tour de France champion Marco Pantani, who was suspended for doping for several months and died in 2004 at age 34.
Fois also was suspended for doping in 1998.
“I took, actually they gave me, DHEA,” Fois said in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport in September 2007, referring to the steroid dehydroepiandrosterone. “It’s useless to list them all. I took what everybody took. If somebody denies it, then they are a liar. We were forced to make compromises.
A sad day indeed.
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