Danilo Di Luca faces a two-year ban and the possible loss of his 2007 Giro d’Italia title in a hearing scheduled for April 1 in Rome.

The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has scheduled a hearing to review the results of medical tests conducted on May 30, which showed “very strange” hormone levels and offered indirect evidence of doping.

While the results are not considered to be an analytical positive, CONI is now seeking the maximum penalty of a two-year suspension and the possible revocation of Di Luca’s Giro win, since the results came from tests taken after the race’s 17th stage, which finished on Monte Zoncolan.

Considered the toughest of the Giro, Di Luca finished fourth in the stage, 31 seconds behind winner Gilberto Simoni. Prosecutors have submitted documents showing that Di Luca’s hormone levels – described as equivalent to those of a child – could not have resulted from the rider’s consumption of large amounts of water, as he has claimed.

Di Luca has already served a three-month ban for his links to Italian doctor Carlo Santuccione, who allegedly provided athletes with banned substances in the so-called “Oil-for-drugs” case. That case forced Di Luca off the bike before the end of the 2007 ProTour and denied him the chance to lock up that series' overall title. Australian Cadel Evans was named the 2007 ProTour winner.

Di Luca is currently eligible to ride, but he struggled to find a team for 2008 following his Oil-for-drugs suspension. He is currently a member of the Italian continental squad, LPR.

In addition to a two-year suspension, CONI prosecutors are seeking to have Di Luca stripped of his Giro d'Italia title. CSC's Andy Schleck, who finished second at the Giro, would be named overall winner.

If Di Luca loses at the April 1 hearing, he has already promised to appeal the case to the World Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. CAS is the sporting world’s last court of appeal. The case could serve as a test for new World Anti-Doping Agency rules that allow the admission of evidence other than that produced by laboratory detection of a banned substance. Such non-analytical evidence includes medical date, witness testimony and financial records.