SB Nation User Blog: Monty.

For all the Lebowski fans here, in memory of Yma Sumac

Monty. — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:49:16 -0000

For all the Lebowski fans here, in memory of Yma Sumac

More Doping News from Italy

Monty. — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:32:21 -0000

What a strange world is the world of sports reporting "made in Italy"!

There is a president of a cycling team - one who has been in the business for 25 years, Ivano Fanini - who in the days leading up to the Worlds atVarese declared:

A) At the Worlds a doper will win;

B) The Italian riders withdrew from the Vuelta a few days early, without motive, to "refuel", that is to take doping products far from public view;

C) Bettini was informed of his "surprise controls" and often, during the race, warned the teams that they would be subject to controls in the evening or the next morning;

D) The big names know in advance whether at the end of the race there will or won't be anti-doping controls;

E) I have reported the facts, told to me by my riders, by telephone and in writing to the presidents of the League and the Federation, but to no avail;

F) At the Giro D'Italia of 98, won by Pantani, there was an exchange of samples between Pantani and Forconi and the domestique was sent home in place of his captain as the result of a positive test;

G) This fact was told to me the next day in my office by Forconi himself, my ex-rider, in the presence of a number of witnesses whose names I can supply.

Fanini says these dreadful things - and much more - in a long interview under my byline (Ziliani) published in "La Stampa", an interview that on the eve of the Worlds (Saturday 27th September) was republished almost entirely by the French newspaper "Liberation", and read the replies of Bettini increasing the dose (hardening the tone?) in a pair of press releases that the agency Ansa sent out, the last at 17.44 on Friday 26th September. Well: despite the gravity of the accusations (to repeat on of them: the current world champion is informed by the "Palace" of his surprise controls and the useless complaints forwarded to the League and Federation), there is not one newspaper, TV report or news that passes on this news to its readers or viewers.

... Post continues with more reproaches for the Italian media.

Translated from the blog of Paolo Ziliani

Here's the full Fanini interview from La Stampa:

23/9/2008 Paolo Ziliani

Fanini: The big names have left the Vuelta to carry out preparations at home. And if they are intelligent they beat the controls.

He doesn't mince his words, Ivano Fanini, 57 years old, President of the cycling team Amore & Vita-McDonalds, when he speaks about the heavy air that you breath in a group, five days away from the race that is the highlight of the professionals, the Worlds at Varese.

Fanini, what sort of Worlds will it be?

Ivano Fanini: If the people at RAI were to do things properly on sunday, at the time of the presentation of the professional road-race rainbow, they would put up a caption that says: "Rider Tizio, Gold Medal, Doper. Rider Caio, Silver Medal, Doper. Rider Sempronio, Bronze Medal, Doper."

Your accusations are very serious.

I know, but what will happen is what has happened for years in the Giro, the Vuelta and the Tour: a rider who dopes will win, otherwise he couldn't do it, and he will beat a rider who dopes and another who dopes. And if the "treatments" have been done in an "intelligent" way then the anti-doping won't be a problem.

He explains better.

You saw what happened in the last week of the Vuelta? All the big names who are aiming to win the Worlds and their helpers returned home without a justifiable reason. I asked my Sporting Director, Pierino Gavazzi, who was three times champion of Italy and won one San Remo, why this happened. And he replied that the riders return to do what insiders call "refuelling" (rifornimento), that is to take EPO far from indiscreet eyes. And the thing riders call "treatment". They all do that, the big names who need to win and the helpers who have to help them to win. The only precaution: to stop a few days before the race so as not to leave traces on the fateful day.

But someone is caught from time to time.

Small fry. Youngsters generally get caught in the net, like Ricco and Sella. After the many doping cases in which he was caught up as an amateur, Ricco deserved to be disqualified for life. As far as Sella is concerned, up to a year ago he was a normal rider. The problem is, at the Giro 2008, he became a phenomenon: and also in his case the explanation bore the name of the new EPO, CERA. Also he in a certain sense paid for his inexperience. Such errors would not for sure be made by a Piepoli, the long shadow of Ricco. In truth his team fired him regardless because no-one any longer trusts someone like him.

Ricco's dismissal from the Tour has revived the ghosts of Pantani, sent home in the Maglia Rosa at Madonna do Campiglio on the 5th June 1999.

It's true. But no-one knows that also the previous year, at the Giro in '98, where he won triumphantly, Pantani should have been sent home. Instead in his place was dismissed Forconi, a helper. Who on the next day, since he was an ex-rider of mine who spent 6 years with me at Amore & Vita, came to find me in my office and told me everything. "They changed the samples and sent me home. I was the only one at Mercatone to have low values" he said. Riccardo was an average domestique, worth 20-30 million lire a year. Well after this episode, and this disqualification, he built himself a villa in the hills of Empoli, and made himself a position. Today he works with Beppe Martinelli, the Sporting Director at that time, and is the team manager of Vangi, a highly regarded amateur club.

We have talked about Ricco, Sella, Piepoli, but among the riders disqualified in diverse cases are also Basso, DiLuca, Petacchi...

It's a situation from which there is no return. A year ago at the Giro, after the stage on the Zoncolan, Di Luca, Ricco, Simoni and Mazzoleni were subject to surprise controls. The four best-placed Italians in the classification. Well, all four produced the pee of the angels, showing the hormonal profile of a seven year old child. It makes you laugh. Notwithstanding this, I believe that Di Luca continues to maintain his relationship with the super-disqualified Doctor Santuccione. And Ricco's masseuse is still Pregnolato who followed Pantani and was caught up in the raids of NAS at San Remo, in the Giro of 2001, with a heap of stuff in a suitcase and was then disqualified. Not to mention Basso who was involved in Operation Puerto, has told a pile of lies, and now is ready to come back, as bright as the sum.

What should we do?

Disqualify for life any athlete found positive. And extend automatically the disqualification to the team manager, or sporting director, because no-one believes any longer in the little virgins betrayed by their pupils. Two years ago, after the mess that it got in to with its riders, Milram fired on the spot the D.S. Stanga - who knew everything - and that was right. And I wonder: what is left to do in cycling for one such as Bjarne Riis? Someone who has cheated all his life, who has won a Tour doped, and who after the destruction caused by d.s. is still there, on the flagship, and has just won the Tour de France with Sastre who even on the podium in Paris was not ashamed to thank Manolo Saiz, a man who is the principal architect of doping in cycling together with the doctors Ferrari and Santuccione.

You are the President of Amore & Vita-McDonalds and for many years have been beating a sword ???? against doping. Why do you do it?

Up until '98 I was a manager like any other, I did the same as everyone else. My team won fifteen races, including at the Giro and Vuelta, with riders who doped. Then I started to see young men who were ill, I started to count the dead, and I rebelled. Do you want to know how many of my riders have died in recent years? Six. And three in the last three seasons: Galletti, Cox and Fois. I hired the thirty year old Galletti on the condition that he would no longer touch drugs and he reinvented himself to the point that he became a loyal gregario of Cipollini. He died in a race two years ago. Cox, a South African, had talent and at twenty-three years old he went to Barloworld: at 28 he died in his country, abandoned by everyone, after an unnecessary operation in France for vascular problems caused by taking banned substances. Fois was the last, about 6 months ago. He died with the jersey of Amore & Vita in his wardrobe. As I have often done with many riders in trouble, I hired him to give him back a purpose in life, to take him off the street. He was recovering. I didn't do that.

But the TV commentators and their guests, when Ricco wins "Pantani-style" lose themselves in ?peana?

They know everything but stay silent. And when the dirty business comes about they pretend to tear their clothes. The important words are "business & spectacle"; the rest doesn't count. And the health of the riders matters less than ever. It's a tragedy because many of these young men, when they undergo long disqualifications or cease to ride, pass from doping to cocaine or to other addictive drugs. Just as happened to Pantani, to Jimenez and to Fois, who unfortunately are no longer with us.

And the next day La Stampa published an interview with Amore & Vita-McDonalds DS Piero Gavazzi.

Paolo Ziliani - published 25/9/2008

PZ: Piero Gavazzi, you are the Sporting Director of Amore & Vita-McDonalds, Ivano Fanini's team. Is it true that when you spoke to your President a few days ago you told him that the riders who wanted to win the Worlds returned from teh Vuelta a week early to carry out "refuelling", that in cycling jargon means to take doping substances?

PG: Listen, I'll make it clear. If my President asks me a question I tell him things as they are, and there are things that everyone on the inside knows. You journalists too. Certainly I didn't expect that Fanini, the next day, was going to tell what I had told him to journalists. I feel a little betrayed.

PZ: So, Fanini has made it public, not in the best way perhaps, but he hasn't made anything up.

PG: No, but I'll say it again, try to understand me. If my President asks me something about doping I give him one answer; but if a journalist asks me the same thing, well I'm sorry but I give him a different one.

PZ: Let's make it clear for one last time. When someone in the know, like you, says that a rider is going to "refuel", does that mean that he is going to eat a jam sandwich or that he is going to take illegal drugs.

PG: Look, everyone knows what it means. Anyhow, the rider is the least to blame in this whole situation; it's cycling that has made him do that. If you want to win the Giro, or at least try, you can't do it on bread and water. And if you want to win Roubaix, or at least try, you can't do it on bread and water. It's impossible to get through these races without ... how to put it: help. And anyway, why do I have to be the one who tell how to get on in the world in which we all live? Everyone has their own eyes, above all you journalists. And if you want to know, I believe that Fanini was wrong. First of all, saying those things harms the team because then everybody in the races you contend is against you. And then, he is wrong because by himself he can't do anything. I've told him this: Ivano, you have to convince the famous ex-riders, the Mosers and the Saronnis, who have children who ride bikes, to take the fight forward all together. Doing it by yourself is a lost cause.

PZ: In reality there aren;t many inclined to follow. On the contrary, to the world of cycling Fanini is a kind of plague victim

PG: I don't know how to say it. Fanini is right but he needs to understand that cycling has always been like this. A kid who wants to take to the road relying only on his strength can, if he goes well, arrive seventh or eighth. As long as he is brave.

PZ: With regard to your time, what has changed?

PG: Everything, I would say. That was a different sort of cycling. Moser and Saronni raced from February to October, from Laigueglia to Lombardia, and before the Giro d'Italia they raced the Giro di Romandie. There wasn't the time for so much mischief, even if everybody, me above all, was looking for help. Then perhaps you would notice something else. For example that the Giro was always fixed (?preparato?) so that Moser and Saronni would win. There were no opponents, there were no climbs, after two stages you would realise that half the group had been bought. As I said, it was different. Today I read that Armstrong wants to come back to win another Tour. Well he is the classic example of a rider who demonstrates what needs to be done today to win an important race: hide yourself away for six months to be the strongest of all on the day, or month, that counts. A season that lasts in total 3 weeks.

Giro Route Speculation

Monty. — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:44:11 -0000

OK let's get away from the doping. Today's Il Mattino has a whole page spread on news that next year's Giro will be exploring Campania and Naples fairly extensively. The final route won't be revealed until December, but there is expected to be a sprint finish into Benevento, followed by a day along the Amalfi coast, finishing with a climb to the summit of Vesuvius, fifty years after Charly Gaul won the timetrial there. They will then set out the next morning along the seafront at Naples, heading towards Lazio.

The Red Bull Rampage Evolution

Monty. — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:12:58 -0000

The Red Bull Rampage Evolution

Sella turns Stool Pigeon

Monty. — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:02:17 -0000

Capodacqua has the details

Two hours behind closed doors for a confession just in summary, but one which will be clarified and fully detailed in writing after the holiday. Names, surnames, circumstances. After Riccardo Ricco, Emanuele Sella too has "lifted a weight from his stomach," confirming in a hearing with the head of the antidoping prosecutor of CONI, Ettore Torri, to doping with CERA the distressing picture that is appearing in the background of the latest doping story in cycling. International traffic: a path that leads to the Veneto (already at the centre of the investigations into the pm Cameran (??) at the 2001 Giro) and to the East. A Hospital in Serbia from which came, under the counter, the valuable, brand new hormone that stimulates the production of red blood cells and that until the explosion of sensational cases at the Tour was thought to be untraceable in tests. Old personalities and very familiar faces reappear; doctors who are old acquaintances in doping stories. Disconcerting details are emerging. A framework that Sella has promised to explain in detail after the summer holidays in an agreement between the prosecutor Torri and Pasqualin, who represented the athlete (defended by the advocate Eriberto Rosso). Pasqualin in recent days has pushed to the limit to get the Vicentine rider to open up and make a full confession. Is the rubber wall crumbling? It's too soon to say, but we have to recognise that the two cases, Ricco and Sella, have struck a heavy blow and should recognise (in Ricco most) the courage to finally make a serious contribution to lead and drive cycling from the whirlpool of banned medicines.

Ricco has spoken of Santuccione. In the Sella inquiry there emerges once again the figure of a doctor, Enrico Lazzaro, previously implicated in grim stories of doping regarding the blitz made by Customs on the 2001 Giro. How is it that little has changed since then, apart from a greater caution. When you look back over time, nowadays it is more "difficult". If the doctor who "advises" you is at the centre of attention then it's better to consult another doctor less in the spotlight [under the crosshairs], but who works closely with the first. But don't give up the old habits.

Sella was at the centre of attention of Nas, the Customs Police [Guardia di Finanzia] and the CONI anti-doping prosecutor for months. An investigation opened by Customs in Padova led, during the Giro, to the stopping of the father of a Gerolsteiner racer while he was travelling on the Giro route with a Director Sportive friend. In the car was found, among other things, a syringe concealed in a toothpaste tube. That syringe showed traces of a powerful doping hormone, lutrelef. Simultaneously with the stop, the house of the DS was searched. Eighty-odd packages of Viagra were recovered. For right or wrong, the easiest new frontier of doping was do-it-yourself. One of the recipients of Viagra was a friend of Sella. From there attention and the inquiry turned to him. Right up to the bombshell of the positive for CERA in the test carried out by the UCI on 23rd of July. And once again the Veneto and the famous north is the breeding ground of a doping ever more sophisticated. Sella now hopes for a reduction in penalty. His offence is ususlly subject to a two year suspension. That's without taking in to account the visits to a banned doctor which lengthens the shadow of the suspension. Everything depends on the extent of his cooperation. It can't be anything less than complete and total (names, suppliers, doctors, etc) if he wants to get back to racing before he is too old. He is 27 and has a not particularly hopeful future before him. For now the signs would seem to be ... positive.

Girodonne

Monty. — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:32:11 -0000

We've been knocking the men for the fashion faux pas in their kit, so why should the women be excused. The Superman look never works. Ever.

The Giro Donne started yesterday with an evening, floodlit, time trial. At least partly floodlit. The early starters at least got some natural light. At the end it was like this.

Would Cancellara go flat out in these circumstances. The sponsors can't have been too pleased with the podium ceremmony either.

Check out CN for the full results.

Today's stage was completely flat and very dull. Not even a break, just a big group ride. Not even an attempt to break away, as if they all thought "what's the point." Kudos to RAI for filming the whole stage, but if the women don't ride a bit more aggressively then perhaps they won't bother in the future. The only notable thing in the peloton was the colour coordination: The top teams, who spent all day at the front, were wearing blue. Teams like Columbia and Flexpoint. The hangers-on and wheelsuckers at the back, often national teams, were all in red. I have no idea if this means anything.

Result of the final sprint:

1 Ina Yoko Teutenberg (Columbia)

2 Kirsten Wild (AA-Drink)

3 Giorgia Bronzini (Titanedi)

4 Grete Treier (GS Gauss)

4 Rochelle Gilmore (Menikini)

The bonus seconds at the line also put todays top three into the top three on GC.

July's "other" Grand Tour

Monty. — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:26:50 -0000

This saturday sees the start of not one but two cycling Grand Tours. If you can cast your eyes temporarily away from the capital of remotest Hicksville, Northern France (did you see what I did there, bethie?) and look instead to the Italian lakes and the beautiful town of Mantova, you can watch a GT made for traditionalists, one that starts in the proper way, with a prologue round the station carpark. Not the best of starts, but don't worry the 2008 Girodonne should improve as the week goes on. The route seems to mirror the old fashioned TdF ones too, starting off with 3 flat stages around the Po valley before heading northwards in search of some hills. There are seventeen teams starting out, but the GC will probably come down to a fight between the usual handful of suspects, a first victory for Judith Arndt in Colombian Blue. Cicloweb have a Davide Cassani style preview up of stage 4 on YouTube (something for you Californians to be planning for next year?). RAI3 will be running a half hour or so of highlights each day after their coverage of the French race ends, so anyone with a dish should be able to catch it in Europe. If you want to pick up RAI over the Atlantic then you will need one of these. I don't know if they are streaming it or if CyclingTV will have it too.

Bye Bye to the Argyle Armada

Monty. — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:11:51 -0000

According to Velonews Team Slipstream have persuaded Garmin to pony up a bit more sponsorship cash to get title sponsor status (I wonder if David Millar's little eulogy during the Giro was part of some masterplan). No longer Team Slipstream, they will now be Team Garmin-Chipotle presented by H30. So now we wonder how much longer that unique orange and blue kit can survive? As long as Svein Tuft is in the peloton, perhaps.

[ed] Bonus! Press conference coverage in the comments.

Vuelta a Asturias Stage 2a

Monty. — Sun, 04 May 2008 10:59:03 -0000

Stage 2a showed that Garzelli really is on cracking form right now. Unlike yesterday's really odd finish, he won a more conventional bunch sprint although I'm not sure if his lead out man Milan understood that he was meant to give way to the boss, rather than drag racing him down the finishing straight. Maybe he couldn't tell the difference between Garzelli and Robbie Hunter in the heat of the moment. Or that's his excuse anyway.

Garzelli
Milan
Riccio
Robbie Hunter
Sobrino

Shame that Garzelli won't be at the Giro.

GC unchanged going in to this afternoon's TT:

Vicioso
Garzelli @ 4s
Zaballa @ 6s
Pires @ 10s
Tondo @ 10s
David Garcia @1.30

Oh, live streaming is available if you ferret around in http://www.rtpa.es/

Di Luca's suspension upheld

Monty. — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:55:14 -0000

According to gazzetta the three month suspension Di Luca was given for visiting a banned doctor is upheld, but not extended to 2 years as CONI was asking. Di Luca is disappointed but is looking forward to the Giro.