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Andrew_M
National Champion
Poland
415 Posts |
 Posted - 11/05/2009 : 15:34:23
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quote:
Cyclingnews.com wrote
15:31 CEST
This news just in: The Italian CONI has given Alejandro Valverde a two-year ban, for his involvement in Operacion Puerto.
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marino
Elite Rider
Canada
136 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2009 : 15:39:17
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quote:
Originally posted by Andrew_M
quote:
Cyclingnews.com wrote
15:31 CEST
This news just in: The Italian CONI has given Alejandro Valverde a two-year ban, for his involvement in Operacion Puerto.
Looks like he be out of the tour. it will be crossing italy.
MARINO |
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SarahforSaxoBank
National Champion
Denmark
631 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2009 : 16:19:00
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Sad, but that's what he deserves.  |
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DK-IT
National Champion
Italy
402 Posts |
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SarahforSaxoBank
National Champion
Denmark
631 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2009 : 18:26:51
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| Exactly. :-D You know, he should have had the two years when everybody else got them. Then he would be BACK now, like Ivan Basso, and he would have had his punishment. :-D |
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Andrew_M
National Champion
Poland
415 Posts |
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SarahforSaxoBank
National Champion
Denmark
631 Posts |
Posted - 13/05/2009 : 20:24:27
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Yeap. :-D :-/(
No suprise there AT ALL.  |
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Pedro_Santana
Neo Pro
Portugal
50 Posts |
Posted - 13/05/2009 : 20:44:09
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Kloden is a deception for me...really.
Kessler and Sinkwitz have suspensions so Kloden must have to.
Saxo Bank is the best!!!
Andy you are the BEST!!!
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OctaBech
National Champion
Denmark
898 Posts |
Posted - 13/05/2009 : 21:40:21
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quote:
Originally posted by Andrew_M
You all probably have already know about Andreas Kloden:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/may09/may13news3
Yeah, Cyclingnews is a bit slow with this one.
I wonder if he gets to ride the Tour, hopefully not if the German authorities decide to prosecute.
- Professional Couchrider |
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KD teammate
Hors Categorie
Denmark
5683 Posts |
Posted - 14/05/2009 : 15:28:58
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Summary of the latest doping cases:
This post is just to sum up, and have a look at some of the perspectives in the recent doping cases.
T-mobile affair and status for Klöden
3 weeks ago the results from the report of the “Freiburg commision” was reported by Der Spiegel, and I made a post about that at page 12 in this topic. The conclusions from the report has now at May 13 been presented and confirmed by the commision. Afterwords the German Cycling Federation (BDR) announced, that they would soon recieve the report, and start to investigate wether or not to start a sports trial against the implicated persons.
So far the Freiburg commision has concluded, that the blood transfusions of Sinkewitz, Kessler and Klöden (taking place July 2 –2006), can be legally prooven. The girlfriend of Sinkewitz drove a car with the 3 riders from Freiburg to Tour de France, after they all in the time frame of 18:00-18:45 had recieved an equal amount of blood doping in the Freiburg clinic. None of the riders will be prosecuted in civil court, but obviously risk to get a suspension in the sports court. Under normal circumstances, Astana will now prohibit Klöden from riding anymore races, until his case has been judged.
The prosecutor in Freiburg has decided to start a court case against those persons who administered the network with systematic doping from 1995-2006, for the moment this only implicates Dr.Schmid, Dr.Heinrich, the pharmacist in Elzach, and the former leaders of the cycling team T-mobile.
www.radsport-news.com/sport/sportnews_56638.htm
Why havent we yet recieved the official verdict in Vinokourov’s doping case?
Back in Dec.2007 the Kazakh Cycling Federation handed out a 1 year suspension for Vinokourov. This decision was first appealed by UCI, with a demand of a 2 year suspension (expirering 23/7-2009). When Vinokourov announced he would retire, UCI however decided to drop the appeal, since they thought it didnt matter. In autumn 2008, Vinokourov then changed his mind, and announced he would return to race in 2009. This resulted in a quick announcement from UCI in October 2008, that the appeal of Vinokourov’s case was still pending, and a matter of CAS to decide. Afterwords we have been waiting, waiting and waiting. Nothing has happened yet! The official suspension of Vinokourov is still listed for 1 year, and to me its quiet frustrating, that UCI once again failed to communicate the status of the case!
Recently we had the same kind of silence in the case of Kashechkin. Only in February 2009, we suddenly had a very silent update by UCI of their list of sanctions in 2008. From this list we can now see, that Kashechkin at Dec.25 in 2008 recieved a 2-year suspension (expires 5/8-2009) for his violation at 1/8-2007, and that he now has decided to appeal the case! I fail to understand, why UCI havent followed up on those important cases a lot before, simply to make sure that the "arbitration process" wont drag on for multiple years?!?
www.uci.ch/includes/asp/getTarget.asp?type=FILE&id=Mzc2MTE
A verdict is finaly on its way for Luca Paolini in Operation Athena!
The CONI prosecutor has finaly recieved the court papers to start the arbitration against Luca Paolini in Operation Athena. As earlier reported in this topic, this big doping network was mostly used by amateurs, but also had Luca Paolini as a frequent customer. The violation dates back to 2006, where the doping network was dismantled after the Italian police raided the fitness center “Athena”. At that point of time Luca Paolini raced for Liquigas. A team who in 2006 also counted a lot of riders, being clients of the “Operation Oil for Drugs” doping network.
The story once again illustrates the problem we have, when a police investigation dismantle a doping network. In spite of the evidense being clear and ready to convict the riders, the sports court has to wait for the civil court to finalize their procedure, before starting the disciplinary cases in the sports court. As a consequense we have some riders who are caught in May 2006, but only gets convicted guilty in May 2009. In the mean time, they can freely compete and make big results in the peleton. As a matter of fact Luca Paolini, was actualy selected to race this years Giro, and only withdrawed when CONI announced his case would start with the first hearing at 5/5-2009!
For those of you also interested in the history of the past, these “recent” cases from 2006 was not the first time Liquigas had several riders implicated in some dirty practise. In the “Giro Bliss 2001”, Liquigas had these 6 riders: Casarotto, Faresin, Ferrigato, Gotti, Honchar and Rebellin, being prosecuted of a civil court for “doping use”. The Italian police could proof their "doping use" by recorded phone conversations and some revealing video surveillance. But due to procedural errors, where the police had not recieved the courts approval for surveillance, this pile of evidence was deemed as illegal to use! The sports court for some strange reason wouldnt touch the evidence either. So the only rider to get convicted at that point of time, was Ivan Gotti, who recieved 5 months prison, due to the police finding his car loaded with doping products (and witnesses could explain his father had been driving the car behind the peleton, during the entire Giro).
Da Ros (Liquigas) arrested in operation “Muscoli & doping”
Gianni Da Ros became arrested March 11, together with 11 other persons, when the Italian police made a doping raid. The civil prosecutor first charged him for the serious crime to commit doping trade, but later changed it to “possesion of doping”. For the moment its still not known, when the sports court will recieve the evidence from the police. But Liquigas this time did a good and right decision, to suspend him immedeately from the team. The reason why I now dwell a bit on the details in this story of Gianni Da Ros, is that it illustrates both that the Italian police make a serious effort to fight the use of doping, but also the sad truth, that many small doping networks still continue to exist.
Gianni Da Ros (22 years) only made his debute as neopro for Liquigas in Jan.2009, which again should remind us not to fool our minds to believe, that doping only belong to the old generation of riders (with a bad habbit). When the police found out about the existence of the network, they started an investigation where a total of 64 persons where checked at home/office/gyms (in multiple regions of Italy). The investigation started 1 year ago, when the police learned that anabolic products (testosterone and growth hormones) started to emerge in some schools in Milan. After a close surveillance, the police managed to learn the channels of supply and distribution, and discovered that some products even was imported from countries in Eastern Europe and North Africa.
As with all other big doping networks, the police could identify some persons doing “illegal import”, sellers, buyers, plus a pharmacist and a doctor violating the law. The drugs were prescribed with a fake doctor name, that didnt exist, and the fake recipes were then presented to pharmacists who didnt check. Among the main suspects were athletic trainers, body builders from some fitness centers, and even two transsexuals. The police made a comprehensive surveillance of the sellers, and found out that this code language was being used: “Add 2 bouncers to put on the right of the stage”, or “What do I need” or “two officiers”. In the telephone conversations, the suspects were referring to the substances with curious nicknames like "beast", "dancer break dance", "dancer who trembles", "burn cd", "superman". And they also used fake names like "Victor" and "Vanessa", corresponding to the different identities of the sellers to contact.
www.sportpro.it/doping/news/2009/03.htm
When is it allowed to sniff Cocaine?
Not a word about Boonen (since we have a special topic for that). But besides of Boonens recent third incident of testing postive for Cocaine and Ecstasy, we also have David Kopp (Cycle Collstrop) who tested positive for Cocaine in Sep.2008. The reason why I highlight this story, is because Kopp was caught positive in a Kermise race. These races are not official UCI races, and therefor Kopp has asked wether or not his test should be considered as: “in competition” were Cocain is strictly forbidden, or “out of competition” where WADA allow the athletes to sniff Cocain. Strictly speaking a Kermise race is of course still “in competition”, eventhough it isnt sanctioned by UCI. But perhaps Kopp can now proof he acted negligent about that, and then recieve a reduced 1 year suspension, instead of the standard suspension of 2 years.
Is this fair and appropriate? And why do WADA allow athletes to sniff cocaine “out of competition”? Back in 2002 the antidoping regulation prohibited the use of cocaine and amphetamines both “in competition” and “out of competition”. In fact Jan Ullrich got caught and convicted for his use of amphetamines in an “out of competition” test in 2002. He recieved a maximum suspension for that, which at that point of time equalled a suspension of 6 months.
When WADA later changed the rules to allow Cocaine "out of competition", it was due to the fact that the substance only help the athlete as a “pain killer”, if its used the same day as the athlete competes. But why havent WADA thought about the damage to the “image of a clean sport”, when athletes are being caught of sniffing Cocaine “out of competition”? Should this really be allowed? Wouldnt it be more fair, if this kind of damaging behaviour always result in a suspension, no matter if it happens “in competition” or “out of competition”?
Valverde finaly received his 2-year suspension in Operation Puerto!
The verdict from UCI wether or not it will be global or only at Italian ground, will arrive within the next few weeks. As a member of WADA, it should however be noted that UCI is obliged to always respect the antidoping decisions made by national antidoping agencies, to take effect on a global scale. Only in very rare cases, where procedural errors have been made, UCI can decide to invalidate the decision on a global scale. So it should be pretty much certain, that they soon will accept the decision to be global!
If/when Valverde appeal the decision to CAS, the standard time frame for the arbitration is, that he has to wait around 4 months before his CAS hearing will start, and another 2 months before the verdict is published. So if he appeals in May, the CAS verdict will only be announced in November. Until then, the original first decision will always stand. So no matter what CAS decides, its now certain that Valverde will be suspended on a global scale, at least for the rest of 2009.
Earlier we discussed what would happen to Valverdes subsequent results, acchieved after his “presumeably” last blood doping attempt in Operation Puerto, in 2006. In all likelyhood, all his results will stand! This is regulated by article 313 in the UCI rules: “all other competitive results obtained from the date a positive Sample was collected, or other antidoping rule violation occurred, shall unless fairness requires otherwise, be Disqualified. It may be considered as unfair to disqualify the results, which were not likely to have been affected by the Rider’s antidoping rule violation.”
So in other words, if the rider is convicted guilty of “attempted doping use”, then the subsequent results wont get disqualified. If the evidense is strong enough to establish the “use” of doping on a certain date (but still without a positive test), then this of course is treated equal to a positive test, and the disqualification of subsequent results will then depend upon, wether or not these results can be considered as being affected by the doping violation.
Provisional suspensions
As some of you probably have noticed, we this year have UCI and antidoping organisations practising a new procedure for launching “provisional suspensions”. This option also existed in the old version of the WADA rules, but only in the new version of the UCI rules (article 235-245 and 317-319) it has been outlined, that this will now be an automatic decision imposed on all riders as soon as a positive "A sample" arrives (with the rider afterwords being allowed to lift the provesional suspension, in case they demand/argue so, in a written letter to UCI).
The riders are adviced to accept the provisional suspension, since otherwise a potential suspension time (if convicted guilty) will first start from the day the hearing decision is made, and this can sometimes happen several months later in the process! So from now on, all standard suspensions will start from the day of a provisional suspension (or if not accepted, by the day of the hearing decision). Only exception will be those cases, where we have “timely admission” or ”delayed arbitration not caused by the athlete”, meaning that the start of the suspension will start as early as the day of the positive sample.
www.uci.ch/includes/asp/getTarget.asp?type=FILE&id=NDc3MDk
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Edited by - KD teammate on 14/05/2009 22:21:44 |
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Paul@CSC
World Champion
United Kingdom
1415 Posts |
Posted - 28/05/2009 : 09:09:45
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Can't find a news article online yet to back it up, but on Eurosport news (TV) this morning they were saying that the Austrian Authorities investigating the Kohl doping scenario also want to speak to Menchov now.
Apparently they've already approached his team, however he is obviously denying everything......
Honesty is the best Policy!!
http://pauljones-journey.spaces.msn.com/
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csc-austria
National Champion
Austria
603 Posts |
Posted - 28/05/2009 : 10:20:44
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quote:
Originally posted by Paul@CSC
Can't find a news article online yet to back it up, but on Eurosport news (TV) this morning they were saying that the Austrian Authorities investigating the Kohl doping scenario also want to speak to Menchov now.
Apparently they've already approached his team, however he is obviously denying everything......
Honesty is the best Policy!!
http://pauljones-journey.spaces.msn.com/
They will or better plan to do so. As we know from some other countries (Italy, Spain, ...) it's not always easy to carry a motion.
According to some (german) journalists it's pretty sure, that he was in connection with humanplasma. His luck is, that after 2006 (blood bag affair Turin), all stored bloods bags have been destroyed and therefore there would probably be no evidence of his appearance. |
Edited by - csc-austria on 28/05/2009 10:22:14 |
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SarahforSaxoBank
National Champion
Denmark
631 Posts |
Posted - 28/05/2009 : 14:07:35
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I think he should be thrown out of the Giro before it ends. PLEASE(!) not another winner being busted AFTER he's been celebrated. 
:-D |
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SarahforSaxoBank
National Champion
Denmark
631 Posts |
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OctaBech
National Champion
Denmark
898 Posts |
Posted - 28/05/2009 : 16:38:13
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Always in the middle of a grand tour, why is the timing so bad?
Oh well, I (chose to) believe that Menchov is clean because his performance has always been so close to Sastre's. And looking at the riding style, I feel that a doped Menchov should have been able to challenge a doped Ivan Basso(What would seem to be a clean Basso is now riding at the level of Sastre... no a bit below).
- Professional Couchrider |
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Doping affairs in Cycling since 1980
