GJB123 said:
This is bait strange. JV has been quite clear that he doesn't care what doping history people bring as long as:
- they subscribe to staying clean ad adhere to clean cycling while at Garmin
- they fully cooperate when ADA's when necessary or asked by ADA's.
I am baffled people are still surprised that known dopers can get a job (and fresh start) at Garmin. Hell, it is not like JV can slate any of the former dopers himself.
Whilst one cannot be certain with the CIRC currently in progress, it seems unlikely that Guidi has ever cooperated with the authorities and he has established a character of dishonesty which goes beyond the act of doping itself.
Cooperation
According to the judgment (linked above by Benotti), Guidi denied the charges raised against him in Oil for Drugs. He was involved in an investigation which targeted at least 22 individuals but no note is made in the judgment of any cooperation. Indeed he applied to have the charges against him dropped. Which didn't work, since he received a two-year suspension based on the facts of the case.
Dishonesty
I would agree that the team has not had qualms about hiring dopers but the thin veneer of respectability has much to do with economy with the truth. Staying silent but not lying under caution.
This case is a little different however. After the authorities raided an address to which Guidi was linked, his father claimed to the authorities that the growth hormone releasing substance they found during that raid was for an existing medical condition of his father's. And presumably Guidi did not deny that.
Unfortunately for the father, when proof of this medical condition was sought, the details of the pharmacy and the doctor supposedly consulted had, of course, slipped their minds.
At the same time, Guidi's wiretapped conversations with Balestri were, according to Guidi, properly about wheels and tactics in Milan-Sanremo rather than blood doping.
If Ballan ever wants a DS job, I guess he knows where to go.
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It's all there but of course I am happy to see my rough handle on Italian corrected and, in the new spirit of openness in this new generation of cycling, the facts clarified if I have misapprehended any of them.
And in any case it makes no difference, I suppose, when we consider that there exists a flexible approach to hiring. Ethics have proven historically to be very flexible indeed in our sport.