Riccò hospitalized for possible kidney ailment

[Wallace]

Well, first of all, I prefer to see Geox-TMC rather than Vacansoleil at the Tour.

But, anyway, I think it's sad for a sponsor to see the project fall down after staying at the sport after a 2010 without any GT invite.

My favourite team is Movistar. They will probably have Valverde back after his ban, on 2012, and even if he's a known doper, I don't want such a project to stop because of one single rider who isn't willing to learn from his mistakes. The same could be said about Vacansoleil. But if they are dropped from the Tour and every GT also this year, I won't complain, specially if that puts Geox-TMC in.

Personally, I don't want to see any team associated with Mauro Gianetti anywhere in the sport. If Geox-TMC can get rid of him (and at one point at least it looked like they were trying to) then it would be ok to see them in the GTs.

 

[The Hitch]

Assuming both that he recovers fully, and the story on the front page is correct, I hope the dirty cheating scum bag is in a world of pain for quite some time.

Personaly i think there was far more pain waiting for him here

 

[flicker]

I dont blame Ricco, or I should phrase it more as, I dont place the full burden of blame on him. I think this whole thing is more indicative of the pressures of the system, and the scope of actual, unreported doping within the peloton, that a rider feels he must go through such lengths and personal risk, both to himself and to his career, to do it after already having served a suspension and to do it without supervision. I hope it becomes a watershed moment in doping and maybe begins to bring about actual change - from within - but who am I kidding. I simply hope the best for his personal safety and recovery, but expect that this is the last we'll be seeing from him in cycling. Perhaps he'll be the next candid tell-all.

Also, as for the team signing him, I agree with a few others - they got what, and who, they wanted, which goes to my original point. The blame, imho, goes more on the system than the rider, since I am personally certain the nod-nod wink-winks went on behind closed doors. Its why we always see riders proclaiming innocence even when caught so incontovertibly red-handed. There is without a doubt a system in place where contenders are expected to dope, denial systems are in place, innocent even when proven guilty and words like Landis of absolute hypocrisy until the barriers against being absolutely able to speak the truth are broken down.

I blame Ricco personally. He had oodles and oodles of wake up calls. Many, many second, third and fourth chances. Obviously he either thinks he must dope or must dope for results. Any rational honest individual would quit the sport and seek other employment goals. For the sake of his child he must seek therapy.

The denial with his ex or former ex/baby mama is the perfect example, what do you call him in psycotherapy, meglomaniac, compulsive liar, sociopath?

 

[Berzin]

But he's retired, no? So what does he have to fear now? Tell your ex-pro to man up and speak out. The system will never ever change if all these cowards keep their mouth shut.

Speak out, ay? Coward?

Tough talk indeed, but he and guys like him have families and must live in their communities. Their families have to deal with the fallout, and future employment is greatly compromised once it gets out that someone has had the audacity to "spit in the soup" to rat these guys out.

Being ostracized from society is the best deterrent from more riders speaking out. This is the unpleasant reality you've left out in your rant.

So unless you are willing to underwrite any future difficulties this man and others like him would inevitably encounter by "speaking out", then maybe you should tone down your rhetoric.

Your friend is complicit in the problem by not speaking-out and exposing it. He has a responsibility to do it.

Outside of the ongoing US Federal investigation, how have any riders fared by speaking out? The ones who is most complicit are at the top, not the bottom.

This man's responsibility lies first and foremost with his family. There is no place in the world for whistleblowers in cycling. Just ask Pat McQuaid. Maybe it's time people direct their anti-doping ire where it firmly belongs.

 

[BotanyBay]

Also, as for the team signing him, I agree with a few others - they got what, and who, they wanted, which goes to my original point. The blame, imho, goes more on the system than the rider, since I am personally certain the nod-nod wink-winks went on behind closed doors.

What we have is the convergence of numerous failed situations of personal accountability. Riders. Teams. Directors. Doctors. Sponsors. Governing bodies. Media. Fans.

All of them have made specific choices that harm not only the sport as a whole, but individual lives as well as livelihoods.

Martin Sheen knows that going to court to force his son into rehab will likely destroy Charlie's $2MM per week contract with CBS, but to be blunt, it needs to be done. A shame that CBS hasn't confronted him with the same mandate, but that's very similar to what we have going here.

The situation is clearly out of control. It needs to be torn-down and literally ripped-apart.

How many riders have had "life-threatening" bad reactions only to have been saved by the team physician, rather than in the hospital? I'll wager that plenty of these situations have already taken place.

 

[The Hitch]

Assuming both that he recovers fully, and the story on the front page is correct, I hope the dirty cheating scum bag is in a world of pain for quite some time.

Personaly i think there was far more pain waiting for him here

 

[joe_papp]

Assuming both that he recovers fully, and the story on the front page is correct, I hope the dirty cheating scum bag is in a world of pain for quite some time.

What kind of sociopath are you that you would wish for someone you don't know, who rides bicycles for a living, to be "in a world of pain for quite some time"?

What world do you live in that it's ok and appropriate to express your dislike of unethical sporting figures by wishing them immense physical suffering?

You're not a closet sadist by any chance, are you?

Have you sought therapy for your personality disorder?

 

[Sanjūrō]

I blame Ricco personally. He had oodles and oodles of wake up calls. Many, many second, third and fourth chances. Obviously he either thinks he must dope or must dope for results. Any rational honest individual would quit the sport and seek other employment goals. For the sake of his child he must seek therapy.

The denial with his ex or former ex/baby mama is the perfect example, what do you call him in psycotherapy, meglomaniac, compulsive liar, sociopath?

A perfectly logical stance for any of us outside the system. My belief is still that pretty much all of any contenders or those seeking results dope in some fashion or another, playing the cycling equivalent of Russian Roulette, playing the system and being more or less a slave to and victim of it when the bell tolls and you are somehow caught. It continues because the odds of being caught are still so low, and the pressure to do so, coming from the teams, management, results and peers just forces one down that road. Caught once, a rider has the ability to say "no more", but then they are also probably out of actual contention. I'm saying the whole thing is rampant beyond what we suspect. A cynical view, yeah, but it is such as it is.

Yours I think is more optimistic and, I'd like to say, hopefully its the way it is - that its a rider here, a rider there - the "few bad apples" kind of thing. I wish/hope it were that way, but I doubt it. Doesnt excuse anyone of guilt. Simply means to do what they wish to do, they are more or less required to cut corners to remain competitive.

 

[flicker]

What kind of sociopath are you that you would wish for someone you don't know, who rides bicycles for a living, to be "in a world of pain for quite some time"?

What world do you live in that it's ok and appropriate to express your dislike of unethical sporting figures by wishing them immense physical suffering?

You're not a closet sadist by any chance, are you?

Have you sought therapy for your personality disorder?

Ricco is in the special "Tyler catagory". Way over the top.

 

[staubsauger]

damn if one of the best , maybe the 2nd best, climber out there have to take such high medical risks just to do a normal (doping) preperation for a gt, just because he's not on a big team like astana, radioshack, rabobank with a well organized doping program, in my opinion sth is going really wrong in this sport. As well i'm hoping that this comes out to nowhere for him and still would love to see him winning il giro, maybe it would be better for him to quit the sport now. He won't ever come back into that club since the french *******s marked him as the superbad superdoper in 08. Maybe it's better to leave before he lost control about errthing like his big idol. It's a shame that some guys could like contardor are able to do what they want to do without real consequentes, but damn ricco you're a father just think about that :/

 

[issoisso]

For Aldo Sassi's sake, thank god he died before seeing this

 

[Mongol_Waaijer]

One thing that this will mean is that it is now harder for anyone caught (or charged with) blood doping to claim that transfusions are "natural", "safe" and "not cheating" etc

Or those than enable such acts.

Whoever they might be.....

A prosecutor could paint a very sleazy picture of young men playing Russian Roulette in hotel rooms, or on the bus etc

 

[Colm.Murphy]

I blame Ricco personally. He had oodles and oodles of wake up calls. Many, many second, third and fourth chances. Obviously he either thinks he must dope or must dope for results. Any rational honest individual would quit the sport and seek other employment goals. For the sake of his child he must seek therapy.

The denial with his ex or former ex/baby mama is the perfect example, what do you call him in psycotherapy, meglomaniac, compulsive liar, sociopath?

Terrible health repercussions: Check
"Positive" for blood boosters: Check
Problems with the "baby mama": Check
Coming back for more: Check

Sounds so eerily familiar. Hard to place but something here looks along the path of another.

 

[BotanyBay]

Outside of the ongoing US Federal investigation, how have any riders fared by speaking out? The ones who is most complicit are at the top, not the bottom.

This man's responsibility lies first and foremost with his family. There is no place in the world for whistleblowers in cycling. Just ask Pat McQuaid. Maybe it's time people direct their anti-doping ire where it firmly belongs.

I never said that the path was an easy one. I thought you referred to your friend as an "ex" pro. So that implies his tenure with cycling is no longer at risk.

If guys at the top are complicit, then your friend is obligated to expose them. To help prevent them from infecting other at-risk people.

 

[flicker]

Terrible health repercussions: Check
"Positive" for blood boosters: Check
Problems with the "baby mama": Check
Coming back for more: Check

Sounds so eerily familiar. Hard to place but something here looks along the path of another.

Uhhhh, are you talking about history repeating itself.......

 

[Captain_Cavman]

What kind of sociopath are you that you would wish for someone you don't know, who rides bicycles for a living, to be "in a world of pain for quite some time"?

What world do you live in that it's ok and appropriate to express your dislike of unethical sporting figures by wishing them immense physical suffering?

You're not a closet sadist by any chance, are you?

Have you sought therapy for your personality disorder?

Too right Joe, he should sit on the naughty step until he's learnt his lesson.

 

[TRDean]

Sad situation...

This is what I think...Vacansoleil screwed themselves...guys questioning their signing of Ricco need look no further than Hoogerland (who hasn't been caught yet but is definitley charged)! They should be out of cycling all together. Now that being said...the big races should be able to choose what teams they desire...and rewarding rewarding those teams who are the most "clean" would go a long way toward righting the ship. There are some teams out there that base their whole existence on being clean...and their lack of huge results show it. Allow those teams into the big races and leave out teams that have guys like Ricco...or DiLuca...or the Chicken...or who the hell else you wanna pick. How many breaks do these guys get. It really is a sick and pathetic system whereby the clean riders are punished.

I sincerely hope Ricco makes a full recovery and gets psychiatric help!

 

[Colm.Murphy]

What kind of sociopath are you that you would wish for someone you don't know, who rides bicycles for a living, to be "in a world of pain for quite some time"?

What world do you live in that it's ok and appropriate to express your dislike of unethical sporting figures by wishing them immense physical suffering?

You're not a closet sadist by any chance, are you?

Have you sought therapy for your personality disorder?

Not defending anyone here but perhaps he referred to a more universal "pain" along the lines of legal "pain", emotional "pain", career "pain", not necessarily human physical pain?

Ricco has made a very unpleasant bed. It will be there for him. It will probably be a painful process. Sometimes it take more acute, increased "pain" for one to learn a lesson, one that was not learned despite the chance to learn it previously. I can imagine you understand this well. Simply put, lessons are learned in many ways and "pain" can mean more than one thing.

So we are clear, I suppose we can liken it to your ordeals. Doping, almost dying of a blood clot/haematoma (but still doped), being "caught" in a positive test and testifying for USADA (but still providing doping products online), and finally being caught selling these doping products. Those are many, many times when the "lesson" could have stuck. I write this not as an insult or to shame you but to compare the passing of time it took for the "lesson" to take.

 

[hrotha]

I'm reading Bike Chatter looking for reactions to this story and it's infuriating to say the least. Can anybody who uses Twitter tweet Robbie Hunter "Robbie, dear, you ride for Bruyneel"? This is the worst part about it, the hypocrisy.

 

[Bruce_Willis_97]

Ricco is the Charlie Sheen of cycling right now and its hard to feel sorry for a guy like that. I can only hope its a real wake up call for "the new Ricco"
shame he couldn't really honor Sassi and be a clean elite rider like he stated.

 

[BotanyBay]

So we are clear, I suppose we can liken it to your ordeals. Doping, almost dying of a blood clot/haematoma (but still doped), being "caught" in a positive test and testifying for USADA (but still providing doping products online), and finally being caught selling these doping products. Those are many, many times when the "lesson" could have stuck. I write this not as an insult or to shame you but to compare the passing of time it took for the "lesson" to take.

Rarely does an addict pull-over, get off his bike and just decide to get clean. In 99+% of situations it requires devastating personal consequences to get them to take that 1st step. Because they need to be tired of the consequences themselves. The shame? They can live with that for a long time.

 

[thehog]

Great work by the UCI. The Bio passport is obviously working and saving lives in the process. WTF?

and wait for the hospital incident 2.0. He will claim in his state of shock he never said he did a transfusion.

 

[Chuffy]

Great work by the UCI. The Bio passport is obviously working and saving lives in the process. WTF?

and wait for the hospital incident 2.0. He will claim in his state of shock he never said he did a transfusion.

Even if he did say it, without anything else by way of proof, could a charge be stuck on him?

 

[search]

Great work by the UCI. The Bio passport is obviously working and saving lives in the process. WTF?

and wait for the hospital incident 2.0. He will claim in his state of shock he never said he did a transfusion.

if so, his chances shouldn't be bad, isn't there something like "medical confidentiality" in Italy?

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

What kind of sociopath are you that you would wish for someone you don't know, who rides bicycles for a living, to be "in a world of pain for quite some time"?

What world do you live in that it's ok and appropriate to express your dislike of unethical sporting figures by wishing them immense physical suffering?

You're not a closet sadist by any chance, are you?

Have you sought therapy for your personality disorder?

It's poetic justice, it's clearly hyperbole and it made clear I have absolutely no desire for him to suffer serious long term consequences. Sadly other forms of punishment have failed to create any improvement.

The point you seem to miss is that any pain is entirely his own fault, and flows directly from his cheating. I hope you'll be thankful for my sanity that I am not advocating anyone causing physical pain by way of punishment in his or any other doping case.

I'm not going to take moral lectures from drug dealers, as much as I appreciate your desire to protect your own from the dangers of casual internet forum postings.