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Jose Ibarguren

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Anonymous

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Gazetta report that he is officially suspected of doping riders at Fuji Servetto, and that they have records of conversations between him and Guido Nigrelli. What is interesting is that they have transcripts where he requests products "but not too much as Gianetti doesnt want them".

This casts a very interesting light on things. Was Gianetti aware of the doping? Gianettis response ""Bitterness is an understatement. I'm not even comment because I am so disappointed ..."
 
From today's la Gazzetta dello Sport:

Medic Ibarguren investigated in Mantua case: From Piepoli and Riccò to Omega Pharma

There aren't only directors' names, racers and staff in the Mantova doping investigation. At the end of March case director Antonio Condorelli ended his investigation on the Mantova pharmacy, Mariana Mantovana, managed by Guido Nigrelli, which, according to the investigators, was an international doping center that has sent 31 people to court, many of whom connected with Lampre. The first hearing will be held on July 13. Among them is a very important Spanish medic José Ibarguren Taus. He's a person of great relevance, because for three years Ibarguren was part of the medical staff of Omega Pharma. In 2011 this was the team of Philippe Gilbert, 18 victories; this year that team was fused with Lefevre's Quick Step and, if Gilbert has flown to the American BMC squad, Omega has become the sponsor of Tom Boonen.

The name of Ibarguren, a Basque from Eibar who lives at Alicante, appears on page 3 of the court mandate. A few pages after states the reasoning of the attorney general: "Nigrelli and Ibarguren, as per art. 110 of the penal code (involvement in a criminal act) and law 9, 376/2000 (anti-doping penal law), [are incriminated] for having between them procured, administered or in any case favored the use of substances (among those classified in art. 2 of law 376) not justified by any pathological condition, toward the ends of altering the performances of athletes on the Fuji-Servetto professional cycling team, or otherwise to modify the anti-doping controls by the use of such pharmaceuticals and, among these, substances containing testosterone: in Mariana Mantovan and elsewhere, up to the end of 30 April 2009."

Ibargure was at Lampre between 2002-2004 (in the team the Rumsas case exploded), then Euskaltel 2005 (Landaluze positive for testosterone, but absolved for a procedural error) an then the team of Gianetti: Saunier Duval between 2007-2008 (Mayo positive for EPO, Piepoli and Riccò for Cera), and Fuji in 2009. Now, this year, we can also refer to the telephone taps by the NAS Carabinieri of Brescia, which appears in the investigation folder on p. 69.

On 15 April, 2009 Ibarguren was described thusly by NAS: "He's the medic of the Fuji-Servetto, he knows Nigrelli from his time at Lampre. He makes use of prohibited substances and, by his same admission, he hides in his own domicile because of problems with Gianetti."

Ibarguren: "Now I'm going to send you a fax. However, you send the stuff to me at my home!"
Nigrelli: "Ok, afterward give me the address."
Ibarguren: "With a copy of the reciept for the transport and later send the recipet to the usual one, that guy!"
Nigrelli: "To the usual one then! Write me, José, whatever you want..."
Ibarguren: "There's a little something I want! Nothing big, because Gianetti doesn't want it...what you sent me for the Vuelta I had kept at home."

What surprised the carabinieri is quite obviously this: why would a medic at Alicante, a Spanish town south of Barcellona, turn to a pharmacist at Mariana Mantovana 1600 km away? That is for the judge to determine.
 
A

Anonymous

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in italian
gazzetta.PNG
 
It's way too obvious lately.

First the flying lotto's of the past 2 years was already quite ridicolous

Now the flying Omega Pharma's with even guys like Terpstra riding like they had a monster rocket up their *** all of a sudden. While all good riders, they turned extraordinary this year

Won't suprise me at all if some big giro/tour or vuelta suprise is a OPQS rider
 
Yes but that would imply that other teams don't have their own Dr. Doolittle’s procuring for them the stuff needed to really be strong. All the evidence would suggest otherwise; that each team has their good doctor so to speak. There are also the cases of riders from different teams seeking the services of certain blood specialists or clinics (Ferrari, Fuentes, the guy from Abruzzi the clinics in Austria and Germany).

What is somewhat surprising (but not really) is the way in which the Basque medic was able move from squad to squad, despite the trail of positives that followed him. In other words, the new teams apparently still had every confidence that he would carry out his "duties" effectively and without riders getting busted. Although it seems as if Gianetti had his doubts, though perhaps only because of the recent pressure mounted on cycling over cases like Contador's.

If anything it shows what a corrupt world the management and financing of a professional cycling teams is and how omertà continues to reign supreme. Until an independent body, the State, aliens from Mars, whoever, comes in to monitor and establish the services, and from whom, which can and cannot be provided, nothing will ever change. It will always be cases of finding the next guy after the damage has been done, until he is replaced by someone else unscrupulous and avid enough to continue the charade.
 
Agreed, Rhubroma, the corruption angle is an important one and there is no reason at all to only suspect some and not the others.

One point though: Ibarguren and avant garde doping methods. Even if all teams have their medical support in order, I think there is no point assuming that their resources and methods are equal. Quite the contrary, I think it is possible to gain an important edge by being ahead, so to speak. Also the recent Ashenden interview says as much.

To me it seems that Ibarguren has been precisely avan grade during the years, and TSF's excellent summary of things corroborates. Perhaps taking more risks (say Rumsas), perhaps new stuff and methods (CERA).

Team-wide jumps in performance in comparison to the other teams also point to gaining by doping programmes, too.

But yeah, if I gambled, I'd bet a tenner on Bottle or Tony Martin winning the Tour. Might pay back handsomely, all things considered.
 
meat puppet said:
Agreed, Rhubroma, the corruption angle is an important one and there is no reason at all to only suspect some and not the others.

One point though: Ibarguren and avant garde doping methods. Even if all teams have their medical support in order, I think there is no point assuming that their resources and methods are equal. Quite the contrary, I think it is possible to gain an important edge by being ahead, so to speak. Also the recent Ashenden interview says as much.

To me it seems that Ibarguren has been precisely avan grade during the years, and TSF's excellent summary of things corroborates. Perhaps taking more risks (say Rumsas), perhaps new stuff and methods (CERA).

Team-wide jumps in performance in comparison to the other teams also point to gaining by doping programmes, too.

But yeah, if I gambled, I'd bet a tenner on Bottle or Tony Martin winning the Tour. Might pay back handsomely, all things considered.

Well didn't Pharmstrong pay Ferrari one season something like 600,000 euro so that he would only work with him?

It's what we call the "arms race" which probably goes back to Conconi and the first epo experiments on Italian olympic athletes and cyclists. So I understand where you're coming from in your analysis.
 
Wasn't the theory that Gianetti and Matxín were keeping it low profile at Fuji-Servetto because they didn't want to risk another bust so soon after the Saunier fiasco? We've seen it tons of times - whole teams having to virtually stop their practices because the antidoping authorities are all over them (like Euskaltel in 2004). I think it's likely they'd only take the risk for the Vuelta, the one race where they could earn a sponsor with a good performance.
 
Mar 25, 2011
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Apart from everything that is said, there is one thing that still bothers me: At OPL and now OPQS, there are only a couple of riders who are performing extremely well:
at OPL you had Gilbert and Vanendert, maybe Van Den Broeck but it's not like his performances jumped spectacularly last years - all the other riders are mediocre, even weak compared to the average worldtour peloton.
At OPQS you have Boonen who is a maybe a bit better than the last years, but, concerning the cobbles classics, his team is just back on the level of where it used to be, last year was a disaster.

So in my opinion, if the presence of this rogue team doctor means anything, is that whatever he does, he only does it for the squad leaders. Which makes sense in one way or another, because having your whole team doped (with a link to your own team doctor) is a way too big risk for just a replaceable rider.
 
Mar 25, 2011
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It's also too easy to link the bad year of Gilbert to the absence of Ibarguren. After such a good year, it's statistically logical that this year would be worse (the difference is high though, i must admit that). Same thing for OPQS: last year was terribly bad, a lot of bad luck and most of the riders did not seem to reach their normal form level. Result: Large cleaning of the team staff and cyclists, there is no way you can compare the current team with last year's results. Conclusion: yes, they were dominating in the cobbles classics, but it is too easy to link it immediately to one person.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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Wow, some of you's forget very fast or are very new to the racing scene. The number of ex-great last year winners only to flop the following year at a new team or under a new DS are endless! Our good Dr. Pepe is surely a major factor in many of his ex-Team flops that can be certain as everything else on some teams was the same minus Pepe.

It is no surprise the current Lotto Team (and its cast offs) isn't up to snuf and yes QuickStep is very much on form (of some kind) much better than last year, no way you can say they are just a bit better, they are dominating or have dominated. They also know how to make it look good (aka close) but their wins are certain not luck. Again, certain for the right riders at the right race. We won't see the old Mapei (Domo) toppling the podiums they know better.

I just hope the fall out will be equal. As in if Ballan has served his random bans they should be taken into account when the hammer falls and the teams Pepe has been a part of in recent years need to be equally accounted for (aka, riders banned). Lets hope the Italians don't quit half way into this like the USA did and leave a gaping dope hole in the peloton. Hole as in leaving obvious guilty parties riding while the small fries, fry.
 
May 26, 2010
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Zam_Olyas said:
Bump before some sky fanboy's ask why no one is talking about him.

:D now where did you read that :rolleyes:

I wouldn't be hopeful that the Belgian Federation give a sh!t about doping!

Gilbert last year was worthy of looking into for his amazing performance and his doctor was Ibarguren, this year Ibarguren is keeping Boonen 'Healthy?

Boonen just bought a new ferarri! He doesn't seemed concerned.
 
I'll not forget the interview after Terpsta became Dutch champion after a 50km solo. Mart Smeets asked some generic questions like how do you feel etc.

Then the last question: "How come the difference between you and the rest was so big?"

There were three or four seconds of silence and very weird nervous look before an answer. "...ehm good day I guess".

I've never seen a rider lie so obviously. I will look up the interview, but first macroeconomics :rolleyes:
 

Dr. Maserati

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Jun 19, 2009
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Zam_Olyas said:
Bump before some sky fanboy's ask why no one is talking about him.
Poor guy.
He didn't even get to the 6th page because no-one was defending him, so:

Jose has never tested positive.
Levi doped before joining OPQS.
Jose was not mentioned in am the USADA case, see.
Levi has never tested positive (since 96)
Jose is innocent until proven guilty.
Jose has not worked with dirty teams, like Garmin or Sky.
 
To be fair, you will find the Sky-like defenders of Quick Step and Rabobank on Dutch speaking forums. They excist too, there are still a lot of people on Dutch forums thinking Rabobank was a bright spot in a dark era for the past 10 years.
 
Apr 14, 2010
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So no surprise the OPQS express shock and dismay that Levi may have doped in his past so is sacked, but happy to employ a doctor with this history.

The problem with riders coming out and exposing what goes on is that only the riders ever pay the penalty. The doctors, DSs, managers and other facilitators all keep their roles.
 
Oct 30, 2011
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PCutter said:
So no surprise the OPQS express shock and dismay that Levi may have doped in his past so is sacked, but happy to employ a doctor with this history.

The problem with riders coming out and exposing what goes on is that only the riders ever pay the penalty. The doctors, DSs, managers and other facilitators all keep their roles.

Everyone who lifts the lid pays the price - Willy Voet isn't exactly doing the rounds any more is he?

I believe that Levi's sacking has more to do with the fact that he hasn't been very good than anything omerta, but it still is rather shocking nonetheless.
 

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