Operation Puerto

[Koronin]

We’ve probably all been frustrated by the number of times there were hints that more of the Puerto details would be revealed, and then . . . Nothing. But I’m still interested, because it was so huge, and involved more than just cyclists. And there was that whole thing with the code names on the blood bags that left folks researching what were the names of their dogs, debates about Whose nickname was whose, etc. And it also was disturbing how some riders were outed and damaged their careers and others were not, even though the evidence was sitting in those fridges. So I will still keep tuning in.

You know, thinking about it now, I probably should have titled the thread: Operation Puerto --- The Never Ending Case.

I think you're right about the the fact many will keep tuning in in hopes of just a little new information. Although I think the comment that apparently was made in the report advertising the interview more confirms some speculated thoughts that many of the 1992 Spanish athletes were doping. Also wonder if that comment alludes to it actually being even bigger than has been suspected.

 

[Escarabajo]

Let's get it out of the way, I don't expect anything apart from Fuentes thumbing his nose at UCI/WADA and doing the usual 'I know stuff, but I won't tell' act.

Or he'll end up sleeping with the fishes!

 

[Escarabajo]

Here is what a friend posted (on a group in facebook) about what is being said about the interview. (I'll post what he said in Spanish and then the way it's translated)


El médico canario Eufemiano Fuentes será el protagonista, el próximo domingo, en Lo de Évole, programa de entrevistas conducido por el periodista catalán Jordi Évole. En el extracto que el programa ha utilizado para promocionar la emisión, Fuentes considera “casi seguro” que habrá quien esté nervioso por lo que pueda decir.
Fuentes, además, reconoce que “hacía trampas”, evitando, al menos en este extracto, usar la palabra dopaje y añade que “no conozco a nadie que no las hiciera”. Así mismo, asegura que si él contara todo lo que sabe, alguna de las medallas conseguidas por los deportistas españoles en los JJOO de Barcelona de 1992 serían retiradas. Lo de Évole se emitirá el próximo domingo a las 21:25 horas en La Sexta.
Fuente: Ciclo 21.

He said something similar in the past. And nothing.

If he says at least the sports where those medals were won I'd be happy!!

 

[Red Rick]

Just name the 2010 WC winning team and you can be silent about all the rest.

 

[Publiuszam]

Still bitter about it, yea? As for me, I want to know about the 2008 euro winning team where Spain were at their best.

 

[kingjr]

Don't teams who have a lot of possession usually not run that many kilometres compared to other teams?

 

[Mayomaniac]

Don't teams who have a lot of possession usually not run that many kilometres compared to other teams?

A bit off topic, but the most extreme example of a team running and running and not slowing down that I can remember was South Korea in the 2002 WC.

 

[Red Rick]

Still bitter about it, yea? As for me, I want to know about the 2008 euro winning team where Spain were at their best.

It's less infuriating than losing to Argentina after Cruyff stayed home cause his family was threatened inside their own home, but I was alive for that one.

 

[SantiBotero]

Fuentes did not talk much about cycling actually, but more on football and athletics.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Fuentes did not talk much about cycling actually, but more on football and athletics.

Then: "It's a disgrace how much cycling has been linked to Fuentes, why don't people talk instead about all the other sports he was working in?"

Now: "It's a disgrace how little cycling has been discussed by Fuentes, he talked instead about all the other sports he was working in!"

 

[SantiBotero]

Then: "It's a disgrace how much cycling has been linked to Fuentes, why don't people talk instead about all the other sports he was working in?"

Now: "It's a disgrace how little cycling has been discussed by Fuentes, he talked instead about all the other sports he was working in!"

It is your opinion, i was just being factual. The more the guy talks about anything, the better for sports as a whole.

 

[Aragon]

Is there are transcript available/upcoming?

This build-up for the interview could not've been just hype, actually looking forward reading about what was in the 1991 "keys to victory-box of Melcior Mauri or how he meddled with blood bags as a Cada Rujal - team doctor in the late 1980s or apologizes to Ty Hamilton about his urine turning black in 2004 (botched blood freezing process).

I bet he also confessed having been a co-conspirator in the ransom plot to kidnap his own uncle decades ago...

 

[fmk_RoI]

No transcript that I've seen as yet. Marca's live blog, linked in my previous post, has the best summary of it I've seen so far. The closest he seems to have come to the stuff you and I would have liked him to talk about - pre-EPO use of transfusions - was that he used plasma expanders with Fermín Cacho. Him and what football clubs Fuentes worked with seem to be the big takeaways from the whole show.

 

[Aragon]

Him and what football clubs Fuentes worked with seem to be the big takeaways from the whole show.

That has been almost all of the reporting, and apparently Real Madrid is seriously considering a lawsuit because of his statements.

Because cyclist Jesus Manzano was very critical of the very lenient sentence that Fuentes got way back in 2013 (for endangering also his health), it would be ironical if he was forced to testify on Fuentes' side because Manzano has mentioned in the past having witnessed Real Madrid players at the premises of the doctor.

 

[Cookster15]

Glad the OP started this thread. I've been lurking here since Floyd Landis was the most popular thread in the Clinic and Operación Puerto is still the biggest doping scandal to ever affect the sport of cycling. One way to avoid mistakes being repeated is to reveal history to current fans of the sport. Likely the UCI blood passport might not exist if not for the impetus provided by the Puerto scandal.

Armstrong was one man. But Puerto snared or implicated many top riders, including Alberto Contador whose Astana team was excluded from the 2006 TdF and Ivan Basso . But of course the biggest part was the links to unnamed athletes from other sports - obviously the world's richest professional sports teams in Football. I think the comment above by Aragon is a big reason why they got away with it and the stored blood bags are still not analyzed and linked to individuals - lawsuits, plus Spanish courts. IMO, justice and fair sport isn't important to those who might have spilled the lid on all those unlinked bags.

Yes its a disgrace and any casual read of events shows that "Spanish courts" worked overtime to clear any implication by Spanish riders. The sliver of hope (and that is a very small sliver) is that the bags still exist (I assume under refrigeration) so still have the potential to be analyzed and linked.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Operación Puerto is still the biggest doping scandal to ever affect the sport of cycling. One way to avoid mistakes being repeated is to reveal history to current fans of the sport. Likely the UCI blood passport might not exist if not for the impetus provided by the Puerto scandal.

TBH I'm not in favour of singling out one scandal and GOATing it. The wider story is important, from the hope enlivened by police raids at the Giro and the Tour through the despair of cyclisme à deux vitesses and then the long, slow crawl through Cofidis, Puerto, Landis, the Telekom confessions and Freiburg, Rasmussen, the CERA positives, and - ultimately - the Fall of LA. (I'm sure I've missed something in there. I used to know this list off the top of my head.) None of these on their own achieved anything, just like the police raids at the Giro and the Tour, but taken collectively they forced the hands of the teams and the UCI.

In terms of the ABP, the Telekom confessions and the CERA tests play as much of a role as Puerto. They were the scandals that had a strong German angle, the scandals that caused broadcasters to pull the plug and sponsors to exit the sport. It was when sponsors started walking that teams got together and agreed to start funding anti-doping tests (today, the teams contribute about 70% of the cost of anti-doping) while a handful of teams implemented independent anti-doping programmes that pushed WADA and the UCI to get the finger out and implement the long dreamed of notion of longitudinal testing, aka the Passport.

All that said, I'm not averse to seeing Puerto talked up, even if only to tone down some of the nonsense spouted about Tyler Hamilton and even Floyd Landis. Jesús Manzano risked more than either of those two did and without him Puerto wouldn't have happened.

One way in which Puerto did cause a major change: the way this site reported doping.

 

[Escarabajo]

Thanks for the read. That was good.

After reading most of it, what is funny is how the riders and coaches always play the "victims" game. Always relating to the words that the scandal is not good for cycling or the fans. Like trying to shut up the media when in the end they are the most guilty ones and the the ones that have created the chaos. Listen to Bruyneel, Riis and others. So funny.

Fast forward years later and we get the Armstrong scandal with similar words from everyone involved.

Now when we comment or have doubts about someone with out of this world performances we still get some people in here (I don't want to insult them because I will get banned) with the "do you have proof" or "this is not good for cycling" when in fact it is the riders and coaches the ones who have created this mess. With that respect, it is in the UCI interest to be ahead of the police before another big scandal happens and makes them look like inept once again!

Oh well, I will try to enjoy before a big scandal comes again!

 

[Koronin]

Glad the OP started this thread. I've been lurking here since Floyd Landis was the most popular thread in the Clinic and Operación Puerto is still the biggest doping scandal to ever affect the sport of cycling. One way to avoid mistakes being repeated is to reveal history to current fans of the sport. Likely the UCI blood passport might not exist if not for the impetus provided by the Puerto scandal.

Armstrong was one man. But Puerto snared or implicated many top riders, including Alberto Contador whose Astana team was excluded from the 2006 TdF and Ivan Basso . But of course the biggest part was the links to unnamed athletes from other sports - obviously the world's richest professional sports teams in Football. I think the comment above by Aragon is a big reason why they got away with it and the stored blood bags are still not analyzed and linked to individuals - lawsuits, plus Spanish courts. IMO, justice and fair sport isn't important to those who might have spilled the lid on all those unlinked bags.

Yes its a disgrace and any casual read of events shows that "Spanish courts" worked overtime to clear any implication by Spanish riders. The sliver of hope (and that is a very small sliver) is that the bags still exist (I assume under refrigeration) so still have the potential to be analyzed and linked.

You're welcome. I was a bit surprised there wasn't a "generic" thread for Puerto and kept seeing different things in a handful of threads that didn't fit with the actual tread, so figured it needed created.

As for the blood bags that weren't damaged or already disposed of, the Spanish courts did hand those over to WADA. If I remember correctly WADA was trying to match those with athletes and apparently have matched several to athletes, but there is some gag order that unless there is an on going investigation that information can't be released. I would guess WADA still has all the bags that had been turned over to them.

 

[samhocking]

7 names identified by WADA from the 215 bags of blood and plasma, but the Constitutional Court of Spain rejected WADA being able to reveal the 7 names they identified.

 

[42x16ss]

Glad the OP started this thread. I've been lurking here since Floyd Landis was the most popular thread in the Clinic and Operación Puerto is still the biggest doping scandal to ever affect the sport of cycling. One way to avoid mistakes being repeated is to reveal history to current fans of the sport. Likely the UCI blood passport might not exist if not for the impetus provided by the Puerto scandal.

Armstrong was one man. But Puerto snared or implicated many top riders, including Alberto Contador whose Astana team was excluded from the 2006 TdF and Ivan Basso . But of course the biggest part was the links to unnamed athletes from other sports - obviously the world's richest professional sports teams in Football. I think the comment above by Aragon is a big reason why they got away with it and the stored blood bags are still not analyzed and linked to individuals - lawsuits, plus Spanish courts. IMO, justice and fair sport isn't important to those who might have spilled the lid on all those unlinked bags.

Yes its a disgrace and any casual read of events shows that "Spanish courts" worked overtime to clear any implication by Spanish riders. The sliver of hope (and that is a very small sliver) is that the bags still exist (I assume under refrigeration) so still have the potential to be analyzed and linked.

Festina was bigger than Puerto, it showed the sheer depth of doping in the peloton. I remember it breaking and commentators of many sports concerned about the potential fallout for their own sports.

It claimed many more scalps than Puerto, it's just that the penalties were SFA, with almost everyone getting to come straight back to racing.

 

[PhiLiz]

Forget about blood bags, the mere reappearance of Fuentes was enough for Valverde to produce an amazing performance at Gran Premio Miguel EPOrain.

 

[Ripper]

Forget about blood bags, the mere reappearance of Fuentes was enough for Valverde to produce an amazing performance at Gran Premio Miguel EPOrain.

Psychic doping?

 

[Kaptain Kool]

I finally got around to watching the interview. IMHO it was worthwhile because Fuentes is an interesting character. Dramatic pauses, vague answers and occasional nervousness... and it's hard to tell if all or only some is an act.

In general, I don't really care if an athlete is doped or not. And I agree with Fuentes that the primary reason that these bonus recovery methods are needed are because everyone involved (organizers, sponsors, fans) want greater and greater spectacle. Fuentes also wore a sweet white suit, very on brand for some disgraced wealthy guy who has been exiled to the beach.

 

[TheSpud]

No transcript that I've seen as yet. Marca's live blog, linked in my previous post, has the best summary of it I've seen so far. The closest he seems to have come to the stuff you and I would have liked him to talk about - pre-EPO use of transfusions - was that he used plasma expanders with Fermín Cacho. Him and what football clubs Fuentes worked with seem to be the big takeaways from the whole show.

where is that link FMK - I can’t seem to find it. TIA!

 

[fmk_RoI]

where is that link FMK - I can’t seem to find it. TIA!

Links show up better in the forum's dark theme - they're barely visible in the normal one

he talked instead