Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco received a two-month suspended sentence and a 3,000 euro fine from a French court on Tuesday for having taken EPO during the 2008 Tour de France.

An appeal court here upheld an initial ruling, although increased to 4,000 euros the damages the 27-year-old Italian will have to pay to the French cycling federation.

Ricco tested positive for banned blood booster EPO ( erythropoietin) during the 2008 Tour, and was arrested by French police before the Lavelanet-Narbonne stage in southwest France.

Police found a masking product, syringes and injection kit in his bedroom, and the Italian was handed a 20-month ban.

Ricco was in June also suspended by his country's national Olympic committee's (CONI) anti-doping body amid reports that he tried to give himself a blood transfusion.