UCI to refuse Astana WorldTour licence for 2015 ......

[ScottCM]

Under the new Code, there is a greater focus on athlete support personnel (ASP), meaning coaches, physiotherapists, doctors, etc. A specific violation for “prohibited association” so that an athlete may be sanctioned for association with any ASP who is serving a period of ineligibility or has been convicted or found in a criminal, disciplinary or professional proceeding to have engaged in conduct which could have constituted a violation of anti-doping rules.

 

Very interesting

[Rider3000]

5 internal cases across dev and pro team. Shared DS' between all teams, 2x doctors on the payroll with very, very dubious pasts, Roman K being investigated from his time there, and Vino' the doper as a manager. There needs to be a line in the sand if the UCi are serious. 

 

Jeez, if it looks like a chicken, moves like a chicken and squarks like a chicken.... 

Well said !!! I say kick them out for good !!! The UCI needs to repair its own image also and if they allow them in it will only make them look worse than they already are! Get them out ...lets clean the toilet !

[Brickleberry]

Strange how most of Astana is doping yet many other teams are easily capable of keeping up with them on the 22km long 10% grade hills after 19 days in the saddle at nearly 200kms per day. To "clean the toilet" I think they would have to ban all top level pros and get 8 year olds to race the tour. Even then you will catch a few doping probably.

[NotSoBigBen]

the Inner Ring ‏@inrng  · 10m10 minutes ago 
Padova case looks bad for many, not just Astana. Gazzetta piece says 90 riders named in 500 page dossier, including "some unexpected names"

['Dale]

the Inner Ring ‏@inrng · 10m10 minutes ago

Padova case looks bad for many, not just Astana. Gazzetta piece says 90 riders named in 500 page dossier, including "some unexpected names"

Yikes!

[Ryan]

now you mention it, how come Owen is allowed to ride the Epic with their lifetime ban on convicted dopers stance?

 

*edited

 

Not just ride it but to do so fully sponsored by ABSA.... that's what gets to me.

[Spinnekop]

Not just ride it but to do so fully sponsored by ABSA.... that's what gets to me.

If I remember correctly, you only get a life long ban if you got caught AFTER the rule was implemented a couple of years ago.

 

[Cargyrl]

If I remember correctly, you only get a life long ban if you got caught AFTER the rule was implemented a couple of years ago.

 

Hypocrites! The lot of them. I do not understand why a bank would have their name associated with a doper, corporate governance etc. 

[Brickleberry]

the Inner Ring ‏@inrng · 10m10 minutes ago

Padova case looks bad for many, not just Astana. Gazzetta piece says 90 riders named in 500 page dossier, including "some unexpected names"

Correct. They talking 20 full teams they are investigating. All linked to Michele Ferrari. Again I state to think people can ride like these guys do naturally is crazy. They all involved

[Andrew Steer]

the Inner Ring ‏@inrng  · 10m10 minutes ago 

Padova case looks bad for many, not just Astana. Gazzetta piece says 90 riders named in 500 page dossier, including "some unexpected names"

HKGK (vol 47)

[jcza]

Teams linked to Ferrari: Liquigas, Lampre, Colnago, Geox, Androni, Katusha, Quick Step, Farnese Vini, Aqua&Sapone, Astana & Katusha.

 

Not sure if anything will actually happen. Maybe find a rider or 2 and throw them under the bus. The rest to continue as usual. See you all at the Tour Down Under.

 

EDIT: Add these teams to the list - Radioshack, Vacansoleii, ISD, CSF, LPR, Diquigiovanni, Tinkoff, Rabobank, Gerolsteiner, Milram

[Brickleberry]

Teams linked to Ferrari: Liquigas, Lampre, Colnago, Geox, Androni, Katusha, Quick Step, Farnese Vini, Aqua&Sapone, Astana & Katusha.

 

Not sure if anything will actually happen. Maybe find a rider or 2 and throw them under the bus. The rest to continue as usual. See you all at the Tour Down Under.

 

EDIT: Add these teams to the list - Radioshack, Vacansoleii, ISD, CSF, LPR, Diquigiovanni, Tinkoff, Rabobank, Gerolsteiner, Milram

Surely just a matter of time before Sky is involved as well. I find it impossible to believe all the top teams dope and they don't yet they can compete and win? I think to believe that is a touch silly. There wasn't even that much doping going on at cobras rugby, haha.

[Andrew Steer]

Teams linked to Ferrari: Liquigas, Lampre, Colnago, Geox, Androni, Katusha, Quick Step, Farnese Vini, Aqua&Sapone, Astana & Katusha.

 

Not sure if anything will actually happen. Maybe find a rider or 2 and throw them under the bus. The rest to continue as usual. See you all at the Tour Down Under.

 

EDIT: Add these teams to the list - Radioshack, Vacansoleii, ISD, CSF, LPR, Diquigiovanni, Tinkoff, Rabobank, Gerolsteiner, Milram

Rather do a list of "not linked" - will be shorter 

[Rider3000]

Surely just a matter of time before Sky is involved as well. I find it impossible to believe all the top teams dope and they don't yet they can compete and win? I think to believe that is a touch silly. There wasn't even that much doping going on at cobras rugby, haha.

I agree.... its weird how so many of their guys "suddenly" become sooooo strong! As with US Postal maybe some teams have a way of hiding it or buying over some UCI staff... from what we have learned it was very easy for lance and the gang! 

[American Flyers]

Fire them all, start from scratch... Give licence to MTN Qhubeka Team...

[ScottCM]

The Astana team has declined to comment on a report in Gazzetta dello Sport on Monday which claimed that Dr. Michele Ferrari had visited the squad’s training camp at Montecatini Terme in November of last year.

Citing information gleaned from the long-running Padova doping inquiry, Gazzetta reports that investigators photographed Ferrari meeting with members of the team outside the hotel one night in November 2013. A spokesman for Astana said that the team had no comment to make on the allegation when contacted by Cyclingnews on Monday morning.

Ferrari has been banned for life by both the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) and USADA, and it is expressly forbidden for athletes to avail of his services as a coach. In the past three years, CONI has sanctioned riders for frequenting the doctor, including Astana’s Michele Scarponi (then at Lampre), who was given a three-month ban in late 2012.

The news of Ferrari’s alleged visit comes as the UCI Licence Commission deliberates over Astana’s future in the WorldTour following a spate of recent positive tests, two on the WorldTour team and three on the since-suspended Continental outfit. The Licence Commission has said that it is undertaking a review of Astana’s “management and anti-doping policies,” suggesting that general manager Alexandre Vinokourov's doping past could be taken into consideration.

Vinokourov was himself coached by Ferrari prior to his positive test for blood doping at the 2007 Tour de France but he has indicated that he will not speak to the Cycling Independent Reform Commission on his career. A final decision on Astana’s WorldTour licence is expected by Wednesday of this week.

Gazzetta does not name the Astana members who met with Ferrari in November 2013, but the newspaper stresses that Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali was not among them. In the 500-page report compiled by the Padova inquiry, Gazzetta says, there “isn’t a line, nothing, that talks of a relationship between Nibali and Ferrari. There was no contact between the rider and the doctor.”

Led by magistrate Benedetto Roberti, the Padova investigation has been open since 2010 and is centred on Ferrari’s activities. The inquiry has involved phone taps, house searches and the seizure of bank records and has already led to the suspensions of Scarponi, Filippo Pozzato and Giovanni Visconti for their links to Ferrari.