Pellizotti to sue the UCI over biological passport case

[Oldman]

But this is just the world of conspiracy theories. Conspiracies that only really exist in the minds of posters on this forum.

Who are these individuals that are being protected? Pellizotti was the leader of Italy's biggest team, busted on the eve of the Giro. Wouldn't he be protected. What about Contador, Basso, Ullrich, Vino, Valverde, DiLuca - all big stars?

I posed the question about riders under the direction of McQuaid's son as a rider agent. He represents a number of active and up and comers. How much are they tested and how far in advance are they aware of it? That's not a conspiracy theory in the works-that is a legitimate question of proper due diligence by the agency regulating the riders.
As for big stars getting nipped; Contador is still somewhat active after the UCI hushed his "positive" and several of the other riders have managed to enjoy some period of cashing in before they actually had to serve any suspension. How does that happen?

 

[Beech Mtn]

UCI biological passport panel member calls for more transparency

The biological passport panel is made up of nine experts. When a rider is found to have returned suspect blood and urine values, the results are then sent to three of the nine experts for their evaluation. D’Onofrio believes that all nine experts should be consulted on all suspect blood profiles.

“I don’t agree that it should be groups of only three experts evaluating the profiles,” he said. “All nine of used should be involved together in order to arrive at a broadly unanimous decision.”

“We’ve always been in favour of the biological passport but more clarity is required, even on the procedures,” Scaglia said. “We’ve already sent a letter to president McQuaid to ask that the UCI no longer filter the selection of the athletes’ profiles and that all nine experts have the data of the 850 riders involved and not just the anomalous data.”

So the scientists never even see everybody's numbers. It's easy for the UCI to protect riders if it chooses to do so. The system has plenty of room for possible exploitation. One could weed out the bad apples and protect the favorites.

 

[Night Rider]

For Pellizotti to win he's going have to prove he was wronged, meaning he's going to have to prove the "suspicious blood and urine readings" are invalid or bogus... something that casts serious doubt on the values OR that suspicious values in itself does not warrant what he's gotten. Not passing judgement, but it sounds like a real uphill battle.

He really just needs to prove there wasn't sufficient evidence of doping i.e. not enough evidence to suspend. And he's already proved that once at TNA.

 

[Mambo95]

I posed the question about riders under the direction of McQuaid's son as a rider agent. He represents a number of active and up and comers. How much are they tested and how far in advance are they aware of it? That's not a conspiracy theory in the works-that is a legitimate question of proper due diligence by the agency regulating the riders.
As for big stars getting nipped; Contador is still somewhat active after the UCI hushed his "positive" and several of the other riders have managed to enjoy some period of cashing in before they actually had to serve any suspension. How does that happen?

Second question first. How does it happen? Because the top riders can afford lawyers who can hold up procedures. Valverde is a perfect example.

The McQuaid conflict of interest. Just because there's a potential for foul play, it doesn't mean that there is any foul play. I doubt PMcQ spends much time telling the various anti-doping bodies what to do and those riders get treated the same as anyone else. My brother is high up in the Inland Revenue, but I still have to pay taxes.

You're working with the classic conspiracy theorists logic: Event A is possible, Event A fits my preconceptions, therefore Event A must have happened.

 

[Mambo95]

He really just needs to prove there wasn't sufficient evidence of doping i.e. not enough evidence to suspend. And he's already proved that once at TNA.

He was cleared due to 'insufficient evidence'. He didn't prove anything.

Michael Ashenden suggested that he got cleared because those doing the clearing didn't understand the evidence and had no-one to explain it to them.

I expect CAS to find him guilty.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

It does but would be great if in defending their franchise the UCI is forced to reveal their basis for selective targeting. While I don't want to support a rampant doper I'd give a buck to a defense fund that forces the UCI vampires into the light of day. Don't they explode in the light? I like 'splosions.

LOL , I like that. I might have to nickname you IncendiaryMan.

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

Michael Ashenden suggested that he got cleared because those doing the clearing didn't understand the evidence and had no-one to explain it to them.

That's the biggest difficulty with sanctioning riders under the bio-passport IMO.

....2. Selectively avoiding those individuals that the UCI has a vested interest in protecting....

....But this is just the world of conspiracy theories. Conspiracies that only really exist in the minds of posters on this forum.....

"The most glaring observation was that despite collecting 540 samples during the race, only 15% of the controls were unannounced, and some of the most suspicious riders and those with "significantly improved performances" were hardly tested at all."

Nothing to see here, move along.

 

[TERMINATOR]

I honestly foresee Pellizotti to become the next "Michael Rasmussen" whose career is going to be stopped by the UCI. There is no way his lawsuit is ever going to succeed at all, since Pat & Co. are eager to "protect" the Bio Passport farce by any means-so they only have to do is to drag his case for years & transform the situation into an unbearable & expensive procedure for Franco,to the point he would settle for almost nothing.
sad indeed.....

Under UCI rules, all disputes between a rider and the UCi have to be handled through arbitration. So the case will go to an arbitrator and that's it.

 

[Mambo95]

"The most glaring observation was that despite collecting 540 samples during the race, only 15% of the controls were unannounced, and some of the most suspicious riders and those with "significantly improved performances" were hardly tested at all."

Nothing to see here, move along.

I'm always mindful of the old adage "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence". Nothing about the UCI makes me think that they are capable of wide-reaching conspiracy.

 

[Je ne sais quoi]

I wonder what jurisdiction they are considering for the lawsuit, Italy or Switzerland ?

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

I'm always mindful of the old adage "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence". Nothing about the UCI makes me think that they are capable of wide-reaching conspiracy.

Possibly. The level of incompetence is staggering if that's the case.

If a governing body with responsibility for running a testing program to identify dopers, can't figure out it might be a good idea to test the ones that look the most suspicious, a career change is in order for someone...... YMMV

 

[python]

snip

I expect CAS to find him guilty.

there wasn't/isn't much factual evidence (available to the concerned public) to judge either way. all we know that pelli has won round 1 and that the uci has not yet made a firm statement as to whether they'll appeal.

the uci's slow reaction in and of itself may indicate that the blood doping evidence may not be up to the high cas standard - not that pelli did not dope.

TNA has already dealt with similar longitudinal/profiling cases and if memory serves right they once acquitted the killer for the same reason - insufficient confidence level in the presented evidence.

this may bode well for pelli.

 

[thehog]

there wasn't/isn't much factual evidence (available to the concerned public) to judge either way. all we know that pelli has won round 1 and that the uci has not yet made a firm statement as to whether they'll appeal.

the uci's slow reaction in and of itself may indicate that the blood doping evidence may not be up to the high cas standard - not that pelli did not dope.

TNA has already dealt with similar longitudinal/profiling cases and if memory serves right they once acquitted the killer for the same reason - insufficient confidence level in the presented evidence.

this may bode well for pelli.

This is the part I don't understand. The passport is there for a reason. It flags suspicious values and then allows target testing in those areas. If the UCI had concerns then they should have let Pelli ride and then zero in on him to either nab a positive or have much better evidence for an iron-clad case. This was a gamble and it hasn't paid off for either party. The UCI are trying to penalise him anyway by dragging their feet and stopping the guy from obtaining a contract for 2011. It really is restraint of trade.

 

[python]

This is the part I don't understand. The passport is there for a reason. It flags suspicious values and then allows target testing in those areas. If the UCI had concerns then they should have let Pelli ride and then zero in on him to either nab a positive or have much better evidence for an iron-clad case. This was a gamble and it hasn't paid off for either party. The UCI are trying to penalise him anyway by dragging their feet and stopping the guy from obtaining a contract for 2011. It really is restraint of trade.

i don't know if you followed all the threads on biopass appearing every time someone was nabbed by a passport, but they all are the same repeated over and over - the blood passport is a tool that hasn't been 'firmed up' for solid sanctioning. it's always been good enough to flag a suspicious rider but not sufficient to meet the next, (higher) standard - sanctioning. it's an interpretive tool where there is no scientific consensus. it's further complicated by the sophisticated micro dosing.

in one word, if the tool is ambiguous, it's not ready for a wide use until the ambiguity is removed. that's the uci's biggest generic fault. irrespective of pelli.

 

[BotanyBay]

This is the part I don't understand. The passport is there for a reason. It flags suspicious values and then allows target testing in those areas. If the UCI had concerns then they should have let Pelli ride and then zero in on him to either nab a positive or have much better evidence for an iron-clad case. This was a gamble and it hasn't paid off for either party. The UCI are trying to penalise him anyway by dragging their feet and stopping the guy from obtaining a contract for 2011. It really is restraint of trade.

There's not much to understand. The passport is what you do to people who don't pay their taxes:

It's what they use when they simply want to be rid of you and they can't get an in-competition test on you (to get you out). Since the UCI controls the whole process of the passport, there is no transparency.

 

[python]

by 13 january, the uci will likely take a decision to appeal the case to cas.

unlike the other biopass cases in cycling (8-10 depending on your accounting), this will be a watershed event.

this joe lindsey’s slightly dated report, does a decent job at keeping the story straight and abreast with the developments..

another important and largely overlooked fact is the role played by the quiet italian haematologist (having almost no anti doping research ?!) giancarlo isacchi - the main reason pelli is likely to go free and the uci bio passport to become even more confusing.

 

[hfer07]

Under UCI rules, all disputes between a rider and the UCi have to be handled through arbitration. So the case will go to an arbitrator and that's it.

this arbitration is about an UCI ruling with enormous flaws-in which the rider in question has taken the case "beyond" the sporting authorities to bring it to a civil court. the problem here is the dirty record of the UCI in similar cases & most of all is the "aftermath" of it,-in which barriers are set by the "omerta" & the rotten politics behind doors to limit those athletes to get contracts with teams, after they're acquitted. You know better
Gusev's case might refresh your memory a bit?

 

[Señor_Contador]

I honestly foresee Pellizotti to become the next "Michael Rasmussen" whose career is going to be stopped by the UCI...

And let's not forget that Rasmussen's fiasco didn't even involve a positive...

If this doesn't make you scream and shout and curse at the UCI mafia, you might as well pull your pants down and...

 

[DAOTEC]

that makes 3 - python is a smart man

by 13 january, the uci will likely take a decision to appeal the case to cas.

unlike the other biopass cases in cycling (8-10 depending on your accounting), this will be a watershed event.

this joe lindsey’s slightly dated report, does a decent job at keeping the story straight and abreast with the developments..

another important and largely overlooked fact is the role played by the quiet italian haematologist (having almost no anti doping research ?!) giancarlo isacchi - the main reason pelli is likely to go free and the uci bio passport to become even more confusing.

confusing almost python = the Titanic end of Bp and UCI goes bankrupt ... having burned all the money brought in by the teams themselves to get their own riders in trouble and the sport distroyed by a bunch of criminal thiefs behind the green table.

Pietro Caucchioli and Tadej Valjavec have also been appealed to CAS to challenge the validity of the passport system and pending.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/01/12/1499538/uci-appeals-pellizottis-doping.html

 

[Oldman]

confusing almost python = the Titanic end of Bp and UCI goes bankrupt ... having burned all the money brought in by the teams themselves to get their own riders in trouble and the sport distroyed by a bunch of criminal thiefs behind the green table.

Pietro Caucchioli and Tadej Valjavec have also been appealed to CAS to challenge the validity of the passport system and pending.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/01/12/1499538/uci-appeals-pellizottis-doping.html

Bankrupting the UCI might be a viable strategy for anyone that has an alternative association to represent cycling. Do any promotion groups have the money and event control to force a new governing body into being? ASO comes to mind but probably wouldn't want to complicate their life...

 

[Benotti69]

Bankrupting the UCI might be a viable strategy for anyone that has an alternative association to represent cycling. Do any promotion groups have the money and event control to force a new governing body into being? ASO comes to mind but probably wouldn't want to complicate their life...

but they might instigate an alternative with their people running it..

ASO run a lot fo cylcings palmere and monuments, if they broke from uci, the giro and vuelta would join without blinking, thereby negating the uci to a minority.

i am surprised ASO has not done this in conjunction with GdI and VaE before, but maybe it is the future.....

 

[python]

confusing almost python = the Titanic end of Bp and UCI goes bankrupt ...

tbh, i don't think the uci will go bankrupt - it's too political - since there are many 'shareholders' too deeply invested in the uci. but i see their 'litigation' spending go through the roof due to the number of cases they'll have to deal with in 2011. this alone is a huge damper for anti-doping. i'm also pessimistic about the future of biopassport coz the uci, in my estimation, will lose at least one cas case (pelli's i think) due to:

(i) hasty, immature application in general
(ii) genuine 'gray' zones in haematology
(iii) brilliant lawyering by rocco taminelli who's the only attorney who can claim two biopass-like cas victories already (gusev's, and pelli's at TNA)

i may not be as eager as theswordsman to see the apocalypse, but i'll enjoy any erosion of mcquaid's power and the proof of his utter unfitness for the office.

 

[Benotti69]

tbh, i don't think the uci will go bankrupt - it's too political - since there are many 'shareholders' too deeply invested in the uci. but i see their 'litigation' spending go through the roof due to the number of cases they'll have to deal with in 2011. this alone is a huge damper for anti-doping. i'm also pessimistic about the future of biopassport coz the uci, in my estimation, will lose at least one cas case (pelli's i think) due to:

(i) hasty, immature application in general
(ii) genuine 'gray' zones in haematology
(iii) brilliant lawyering by rocco taminelli who's the only attorney who can claim two biopass-like cas victories already (gusev's, and pelli's at TNA)

i may not be as eager as theswordsman to see the apocalypse, but i'll enjoy any erosion of mcquaid's power and the proof of his utter unfitness for the office.

in comparison to fifa, the uci are minnows, yet fifa still exist with their mafia grip on the very rich sport of football. dont see mcquaid going anywhere soon unless ASO want it..