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Dr Luigi Cecchini

May 6, 2009
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Ok, I'll bite, has it actually been proven he has been involved with doping? I'm well aware of his trial in 2001 to which charges where dropped, as well as that he used to work under Dr Conconi.So is there prooff he has given out dope or is it gulity by association?
 
Jul 24, 2009
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No smoking gun.

List of clients:

* Michele Bartoli
* Ivan Basso
* Paolo Bettini
* Michael Blaudzun
* Matti Breschel
* Fabian Cancellara
* Francesco Casagrande
* Angel Casero
* Mario Cipollini
* Damiano Cunego
* Thomas Dekker
* Juan Antonio Flecha
* Linus Gerdemann
* Tyler Hamilton
* Jörg Jaksche
* Kim Kirchen
* Alessandro Petacchi
* Pascal Richard
* Nicki Sørensen
* Andrea Tafi
* Gianni Bugno
* Bjarne Riis
* Maximilian Sciandri
* Rolf Sörensen
* Jan Ullrich
 
Mar 13, 2009
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sars1981 said:
No smoking gun, but more arms sales than Viktor Bout

List of clients:

* Michele Bartoli
* Ivan Basso
* Paolo Bettini
* Michael Blaudzun
* Matti Breschel
* Fabian Cancellara
* Francesco Casagrande
* Angel Casero
* Mario Cipollini
* Damiano Cunego
* Thomas Dekker
* Juan Antonio Flecha
* Linus Gerdemann
* Tyler Hamilton
* Jörg Jaksche
* Kim Kirchen
* Alessandro Petacchi
* Pascal Richard
* Nicki Sørensen
* Andrea Tafi
* Gianni Bugno
* Bjarne Riis
* Maximilian Sciandri
* Rolf Sörensen
* Jan Ullrich
+ coach/doctor of CSC circa 2003-2004 (and corrected it for you)
 
Jul 24, 2009
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Krebs cycle said:
Funny how pro cycling seems to be the only sport where doctors "coach" the athletes in addition to providing "medical" services.

Yeah it was the "medical coaching" aspect of cycling that first opened my eyes.
 
Mar 11, 2009
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Hugh Januss said:
Interesting it should be Dekker in the article. Maybe he'd still be racing if he was still training with Cecchini?

his positive is from 6 months after that article.
so that would mean cecchini is so good that doping was the only alternative to dekker.

from what i know, cecchini makes training schedules and drives along with his riders in his smart car during training, checking the numbers.
it wouldn't be that hard to dope behind his back.

that still doesn't answer what makes him so special if he's really not involved in doping. conconi and ferrari pioneered, you'd say that by now there would be tons of trainers who know and practice this material.
 
Aug 13, 2009
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A couple of years ago La Republica reported that both Ivan Basso and Michele Scarponi stated under questioning that Checcini introduced them to Fuentes.
 
Mar 13, 2009
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sherer said:
interesting list of riders, always though Cancellara was clean and Cippo too
yeah, as clean as WonderLance and BPC and Arbiter think Armstrong is.

Cipo was on Italian tv a few years ago, but anonymous - voice altered, in profile. Talked about doping in the peloton, and it was impossible to ride without it.
 
the considered opinion of the amateur cycling fraternity near Lucca (where he lives and did gran fondos (maybe still does?)) was that.....

"when Cecchini ****es the grass...insert italian gesticulations signifying acid burning the grass"

:)

that was circa 1998
 
Mar 13, 2009
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gillan1969 said:
the considered opinion of the amateur cycling fraternity near Lucca (where he lives and did gran fondos (maybe still does?)) was that.....

"when Cecchini ****es the grass...insert italian gesticulations signifying acid burning the grass"

:)

that was circa 1998
can you be less ambiguous?

you mean when Ceccho tinkers, the riders then burn the roads with new capacity?
 
Mar 13, 2009
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Does anyone know what Cecchini is up to now? His trace seems to have gotten lost ... on wiki it says he was the personal coach for Cancellara, Breschel, Blaudzun and N. Sorensen in 2006, and that Basso "maintained a private relationship" with him.

The Spanish version also refers to a "recent increase in teams and/or riders training in Tuscany, which some journalists have linked to the fact that Cecchini lives and works in that region".

I haven't read the articles they list as sources but it seems a pretty weak link ...

Another interesting story from the Spanish wiki:

The working relationship between Fuentes and Cecchini has been known since the Vuelta 2001, when Fuentes was the doctor of both the winner and the runner-up: Angel Casero (of whom he was the private doctor) and Oscar Sevilla (of whom he was the official team doctor). During the race, when Sevilla was leading the GC, Fuentes left a message on the answering machine of Casero, where he motivated him and asked him to stay quiet, because "you know what" was ready if needed for the final ITT in Madrid. As an answer to this polemic, Fuentes said that he had called Casero upon the request of Cecchini, Casero's doctor, and that "you know what" was referring to a few special cranks (not sure if this is the right translation for "bielas") for his TT bike.

Despite the evidence, Cecchini denies any working relationship with Fuentes, whom he claims not to have seen in years.


What I don't understand about this though is that first Fuentes is Casero's personal doctor, and then Cecchini ... or did he have two at the same time? Or was Cecchini the official Festina team doctor?
 
OP asked if there was proof or not... Most answers just seem to re-post exactly the rumours the OP is questioning.

As far as I remember there's no actual proof of him doping riders, but probably proof to link him to others who did.

I'd like to think Cecchini hasn't done any actual doping of the riders, but been quite aware of the reality.

Back in the early nineties he was team doctor for Gewiss together with none other than Ferrari.

In his autobiography Bjarne Riis says about the time he came to Gewiss that he sensed the riders worked mainly with one doctor and as he didn't really like Ferrari he chose to work w Cecchini who took a far more personal interest in the individual riders. Riis praises him for a lot not doping related and has at numerous occasions been quite adamant that Luigi was not his doping contact and that the doctor has been widely misunderstood in the media.

I actually think he doesn't have anything to do with dope, but when approached by his riders has introduced them to the people he knew would be able to take of them in a secure and professional manner fully well knowing the riders would do it anyway and that he might as well make sure it was done properly.
 
Jul 8, 2010
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red_flanders said:
Didn't he say that before his admission? I don't know much about Cecchini, but stands to reason everything Jaschke said before his admission is bullocks.

Very good point. Cyclingheroes mentions Jaksche made his statement in February 2007.

At that moment, if I am not mistaken, he was still fighting against his ban from 2006 Tour de France because of his involvement in Operation Puerto.

On 30th June 2007 he admitted to Spiegel he was Bella and number 20 in Puerto's files.

Beginning of July 2007, his long interview in Der Spiegel.

His statements before his admission are indeed worthless. May be did I miss anything?
 

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