Career
He most recently rode for Saunier Duval–Scott on the UCI ProTour, but had his contract suspended in July 2008 during the Tour de France amid allegations of the use of the blood boosting drug EPO in the team He was later suspended for two years, which effectivelty ended his career. He also made himself famous by "gifting" two stage victories to his team-mates Gilberto Simoni and Riccardo Riccò.
During the Vuelta, Piepoli lead the mountains classification, but was forced to leave the race, citing "family problems"
During the 2008 Giro d"Italia Piepoli crashed two times, leaving the race with three broken ribs and with his left hand fractured in two places.
Before the twelfth stage, Piepoli and the rest of his team stepped out of the race, after Riccò had tested positive for doping. Piepoli was fired from Saunier Duval on 18 July 2008, for what his team called "violation of the team"s ethical code." The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that Piepoli had confessed to EPO usage, using the same third generation form (CERA) for which his teammate Riccardo Riccò tested positive, but he denied this at the Italian National Olympic Committee"s investigation into Riccò"s case.
On 6 October 2008, it was announced that two of Piepoli"s samples from the Tour de France had also tested positive for CERA EPO. In a 7 January 2009 interview with the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, Piepoli acknowledged that he had used CERA in "a moment of weakness". In January 2009, he was suspended from the sport for two years.