I do. It's obviously not a PR scheme, as it wasn't even his idea. Aldo Sassi spoke to smeone, during the New Pathways Conference if I remember correctly. He said that Ricco was a great climber and that he'd like to work with him to help him down the right path (my words). It made the papers, Ricco heard about it and made the call.
Sassi has been told that his life expectancy is roughly next year's Tour de France. He calls working with Ricco his last big gamble. A lot of cycling is against Ricco, to have a top,, respected coach saying he'd like to use part of the last months of his life working with him is kind of huge.
Ricco is on Vacansoleil, who should be invited to all three grand tours next year. He's now got the same coach that heped Cadel win Worlds and Basso win the Giro. There's no way he cheats during the next eight months, especially with Mapei monitoring everything. If he has a strong first half of the year clean, he has a chance.
For the record, I hated him when he was racing against Contador at the Giro, just based on personality. So this is pretty much his first chance ever for me to say something positive about him. I still don't know if I'm following the sport next year, but I believe redemption is possible, and applaud Sassi reaching out to him when he could work with any rider.