Italy: "After the storm, the Tsunami."

[L'arriviste]

Pozzato pretty poor all season so far. Did he know something?

 

[Benotti69]

Pozzato pretty poor all season so far. Did he know something?

Could have got tipped off about the investigation and played ball with the authorities but said nothing to the team and might explain a lot.

 

[hrotha]

it's quite obvious the team is Katusha.
Who are the riders who live in Spain?
Karpets maybe
Isaitchev and Vorganov were riding for spanish teams so maybe they live there too.

Karpets lives in Spain, yes, but what really matters here is that so does Kolobnev.

 

[Bicicleta]

Wow, DiLuca sure knows how to pick 'em.

Didn't Il Killer help authorites and get his ban shortened because of it?

Wonder if he has any involvement in this mess.

 

[Kennf1]

Katusha headquarters is on La Garda.

1000 NAS agents is A LOT!

Has to be a typo? I could believe 100, but not 1000.

If Ferrari were to finally go down, it would be extraordinary. For a guy who barely avoided jail six years ago, it would also show how stupid he is.

 

[hrotha]

Has to be a typo? I could believe 100, but not 1000.

If Ferrari were to finally go down, it would be extraordinary. For a guy who barely avoided jail six years ago, it would also show how stupid he is.

Stupid is relative. He's probably richer than we can imagine, and spending a couple of years in prison is probably worth it at the end of the day.

 

[GoGarmin]

Katusha team targeted in doping raids?

VeloNation reports:

The headquarters of a UCI ProTeam based at Lake Garda has reportedly been raided as part of a massive countrywide anti-doping operation in Italy.

According to Tuttobiciweb, the action involves 1000 police agents and those concentrating on the team have seized the medical records of five Russian riders living in Spain.

Is the situation about to go from bad to worse for Katusha?

 

[roundabout]

Now why would they be living in the country with such a tough anti-doping law?


Oh.

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

Karpets
Kolobnev
Ivanov
Petrov (Russian no longer with Katusha)
Ignatiev?

 

[D-Queued]

Has to be a typo? I could believe 100, but not 1000.

If Ferrari were to finally go down, it would be extraordinary. For a guy who barely avoided jail six years ago, it would also show how stupid he is.

That POS Simeoni should have zipped his lip when the Don told him to.

I feel like chasing the guy down and spitting on him.

Dave.

 

[mewmewmew13]

That is a good point about Pippo. There might be an underlying explanation for his lack of stellar performance this year. Likely there are a few others who are cooperating, also.

Ferrari may not be completely stupid, but at some point everyone makes mistakes. It would be just too sweet if the screws were on him and he enlightened the world as to the Don's past record of 'training'.

 

[D-Queued]

That is a good point about Pippo. There might be an underlying explanation for his lack of stellar performance this year. Likely there are a few others who are cooperating, also.

Ferrari may not be completely stupid, but at some point everyone makes mistakes. It would be just too sweet if the screws were on him and he enlightened the world as to the Don's past record of 'training'.

As a marketing testimonial, the Don's record must have swelled the customer pipeline.

Moving from testimonial to testimony would be better than just a play on words.

Dave.

 

[theswordsman]

Velonation jumped the gun a bit based on a really thin Tuttobiciweb (breaking news) story.

Cycling News has the confirmation from Katusha that 2 NAS officers showed up at their offices and requested medical files for four current and one former rider. It's all being discussed in the "Storm" thread

 

[theswordsman]

Wouldn't this be as good a time as any for the UCI to release this year's losers in the Bio Passport lottery? Take credit for being on top of the sport before police start dragging guys in? And give teams time to prepare replacements for the Giro, if needed?

 

[Race Radio]

There is certainly a large amount of activity on this recently. Popo, Lampre, Katusha. All ordered the prosecutor in Padova, Benedetto Roberti.

I continue to hear of an investigation into the European wide distribution of PED's and assume this may be part of it. As more evidence is uncovered they are finding that many of the ultimate sources of drugs are the same.

When people use the word mafia they are not far off.

 

[luckyboy]

Wow well this is all very interesting. First Lampre and now Katusha.
Hope something big comes out of this.

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

I wonder if some riders are going to think twice before riding in Italy as CONI seem to have indicated that they are having a massive crack down in conjunction with the police.

I suspect that the Giro line up will be a lot thinner come the start line.

 

[Benotti69]

I wonder if some riders are going to think twice before riding in Italy as CONI seem to have indicated that they are having a massive crack down in conjunction with the police.

I suspect that the Giro line up will be a lot thinner come the start line.

it will be interesting to see what riders do line up and what ones are missing???

But things in Italy are notoriously slow so dont expect much soon.

 

[biokemguy]

I continue to hear of an investigation into the European wide distribution of PED's and assume this may be part of it. As more evidence is uncovered they are finding that many of the ultimate sources of drugs are the same.

Is this tied to the massive bust in Germany a while back where they found a warehouse full of PEDs?

 

[Benotti69]

Is this tied to the massive bust in Germany a while back where they found a warehouse full of PEDs?

I hope so, i hope they are sharing info cross border now to get the dealers and hopefully team Docs and DS's.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Karpets lives in Spain, yes, but what really matters here is that so does Kolobnev.

Kolobnev was mentioned as one of the handful (I can only remember 4) of riders mentioned in the Jesús Losa transcripts, though nothing ever came of those. One of the others was Daniel Moreno, who is now with Katyusha.

 

[Roland Rat]

it will be interesting to see what riders do line up and what ones are missing???

There'll be a lot of people "concentrating on le Tour" this year.

 

[skippythepinhead]

There'll be a lot of people "concentrating on le Tour" this year.

And asking whether they can skip Pinerolo?

 

[sniper]

There is certainly a large amount of activity on this recently. Popo, Lampre, Katusha. All ordered the prosecutor in Padova, Benedetto Roberti.

I continue to hear of an investigation into the European wide distribution of PED's and assume this may be part of it. As more evidence is uncovered they are finding that many of the ultimate sources of drugs are the same.

When people use the word mafia they are not far off.

If that part in bold is correct, and if (as some claim) PEDs are as widely distributed in other sports (e.g. footbal/tennis) as in cycling, then wouldn't we expect to see a series of arrests (or at least investigations) within football and tennis as well?

If this really is a sports-independent PED-investigation, then this pretty much confirms that cycling IS dirtier than other sports.

 

[DirtyWorks]

If that part in bold is correct, and if (as some claim) PEDs are as widely distributed in other sports (e.g. footbal/tennis) as in cycling, then wouldn't we expect to see a series of arrests (or at least investigations) within football and tennis as well?...

Not necessarily. How many different sports federations have had no doping enforcements, yet there are numerous visible doping effects? Too many to count.

Cycling is on the top of the 'worst offenders list.' Fair-shmair, it just is.

I too am waiting for the BioPassport lottery losers. I can't remember the last one for this year. Maybe Pat's list was scuttled because of the action in Italy. He's got some Italian bad guys now, right? Why not dust off their last positive? UCI's got an image to uphold.