Riccò hospitalized for possible kidney ailment

[Alpe d'Huez]

The guy almost lost his life.. And his career is ruined. How much punishment do you want him to get? He's basically a doper who is likely in the vast majority with other dopers, with teams, managers, soigners, and licensed physicians often equally culpable. I mean, if you're going to start tossing stones...

The more I think about this situation, the more I'm not reminded of various dopers who were caught and denied, I'm reminded of Marco Pantani. We know he doped, probably his entire career, but no one deserves to die the way he did.

 

[Anonymous]

The guy almost lost his life.. And his career is ruined. How much punishment do you want him to get? He's basically a doper who is likely in the vast majority with other dopers, with teams, managers, soigners, and licensed physicians often equally culpable. I mean, if you're going to start tossing stones...

The more I think about this situation, the more I'm not reminded of various dopers who were caught and denied, I'm reminded of Marco Pantani. We know he doped, probably his entire career, but no one deserves to die the way he did.

thank you for bringing some humanity back to this thread.

 

[mewmewmew13]

Forgive me if this link has already been posted earlier in the thread, but sometimes it's hard to keep up....
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/7...ter-apparent-admission-to-medical-doctor.aspx

After reading this, it does bring up the question whether Ricco used Sassi's clean name for his own advantage...
seems like that would be the ultimate in bad karma.

IMHO I supposed that Sassi really was against doping, but have read some of other's posts dismissing this thought.....

 

[Mongol_Waaijer]

i have heard that Ricco was already doped as a junior

That means he was a child when first introduced to dope by knowledgeable adults, so he can enter a corrupt system run by corrupt adults in their own interests.

It's hardly a surprise him and others have ended up like this. And criticism of Ricco et al just lets the real culprits off.

Imagine how different we would feel about a woman in her early 20's who was introduced to extreme dieting as a teenager by cynical adults and later developed anorexia and drug addicitions whilst becoming one of the best models in the industry.

Her shocking lifestyle and health consequence are known to be commonplace in this world, and the fashion establishment jsimply blames the individual models for their predicament, on moral grounds, whilst hailing ever thinner models (English speaking) as the future of "healthy eating" catwalk superstars, and berating the laziness of those who starve themselves?

I think the tone of debate and reporting would be at the other end of the scale....but exactly how different are the two accounts?

 

[BotanyBay]

The guy almost lost his life.. And his career is ruined. How much punishment do you want him to get? He's basically a doper who is likely in the vast majority with other dopers, with teams, managers, soigners, and licensed physicians often equally culpable. I mean, if you're going to start tossing stones...

The more I think about this situation, the more I'm not reminded of various dopers who were caught and denied, I'm reminded of Marco Pantani. We know he doped, probably his entire career, but no one deserves to die the way he did.

Amen brutha. He didn't deserve death, and especially not so young and in such a sad manner.

The Riccó situation also involves a girlfriend and a young baby. If the guy has bags of blood in his refrigerator, I think he needs some help (and so does his family).

 

[thehog]

The guy almost lost his life.. And his career is ruined. How much punishment do you want him to get? He's basically a doper who is likely in the vast majority with other dopers, with teams, managers, soigners, and licensed physicians often equally culpable. I mean, if you're going to start tossing stones...

The more I think about this situation, the more I'm not reminded of various dopers who were caught and denied, I'm reminded of Marco Pantani. We know he doped, probably his entire career, but no one deserves to die the way he did.

Agreed.

The sad fact for me is the guy has been abusing drugs for many years and never ever raised an eyebrow from the UCI. McQuaid made a slight ruckus from his latest signing but didn't his passport raise a trigger? It was up to the AFLD to catch him and now a near death experience for him to maybe finally get the message... but the UCI is not protecting these guys from killing themselves. If Ricco is blood doping in a early season race to just compete then the sport has still got massive problems.

When someone like Landis comes out and speaks the truth about the sport he's ridiculed and derided as an outsider. Isn't ironic how these things turn out.... right you are. No one deserves to die like Pantani.

 

[thehog]

The Riccó situation also involves a girlfriend and a young baby. If the guy has bags of blood in his refrigerator, I think he needs some help (and so does his family).

Lets add to that just because someone can afford to build a fridge into their closet and pay others to keep an eye on doesn't make them anymore sophisticated than Ricco.

 

[BotanyBay]

Agreed.

The sad fact for me is the guy has been abusing drugs for many years and never ever raised an eyebrow from the UCI. McQuaid made a slight ruckus from his latest signing but didn't his passport raise a trigger? It was up to the AFLD to catch him and now a near death experience for him to maybe finally get the message... but the UCI is not protecting these guys from killing themselves. If Ricco is blood doping in a early season race to just compete then the sport has still got massive problems.

When someone like Landis comes out and speaks the truth about the sport he's ridiculed and derided as an outsider. Isn't ironic how these things turn out.... right you are. No one deserves to die like Pantani.

Let's stop kidding each other. The passport is probably nothing more than an extortion tool. When they're hungry for a payoff, the passport finds something/someone. My guess is that Riccó was all paid-up.

 

[roundabout]

i have heard that Ricco was already doped as a junior

That means he was a child when first introduced to dope by knowledgeable adults, so he can enter a corrupt system run by corrupt adults in their own interests.

It's hardly a surprise him and others have ended up like this. And criticism of Ricco et al just lets the real culprits off.

Imagine how different we would feel about a woman in her early 20's who was introduced to extreme dieting as a teenager by cynical adults and later developed anorexia and drug addicitions whilst becoming one of the best models in the industry.

Her shocking lifestyle and health consequence are known to be commonplace in this world, and the fashion establishment jsimply blames the individual models for their predicament, on moral grounds, whilst hailing ever thinner models (English speaking) as the future of "healthy eating" catwalk superstars, and berating the laziness of those who starve themselves?

I think the tone of debate and reporting would be at the other end of the scale....but exactly how different are the two accounts?

How corrupt do you think the system is when a guy who was caught once and went through all the derision decides that it still worth it to seriously risk it all again while pretending that he is a new man?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riccardo-ricco-the-cobra-is-dead

Maybe there is more to it than Ricco being a victim.

 

[MarkvW]

I'm not sure I agree.

The guy almost lost his life.. And his career is ruined. How much punishment do you want him to get? He's basically a doper who is likely in the vast majority with other dopers, with teams, managers, soigners, and licensed physicians often equally culpable. I mean, if you're going to start tossing stones...

The more I think about this situation, the more I'm not reminded of various dopers who were caught and denied, I'm reminded of Marco Pantani. We know he doped, probably his entire career, but no one deserves to die the way he did.

"Deserving" implies some jointly shared moral framework. I don't think we can approach that in this forum. I don't think Pantani deserved anything, but what he got was the natural consequence of a very long chain of self-destructive actions. He did himself and that is very sad.

I hope Ricco recovers and fades to obscurity, but this is too beautiful a schadenfreude moment to relinquish quickly. The guy is a total jerk, but more wonderfully he's like the bank robber who shoots himself in the course of the robbery. You just gotta laugh AT him!

 

[nevada]

Let's stop kidding each other. The passport is probably nothing more than an extortion tool. When they're hungry for a payoff, the passport finds something/someone. My guess is that Riccó was all paid-up.

Jesus guys, the passport is nothing more than a speed limit on a road. Ask Millar what was going on at Saunier Duval. Until McQuaid and his regime changes nothing changes.

 

[the student]

Vacansoleil claims they have a clause in their contract which says riders have to pay massive fines for violation of internal team regulations, that also means a non doping policy.

some quotes from manager ( in dutch )

De ploeg had geen reden om aan te nemen dat er iets mis was. “Tot op heden zijn er bij alle waarden die we gezien hebben geen vreemde waarden aangetroffen,” aldus Luijkx. De ploeg heeft bedongen dat Ricco een boete moet betalen indien hij opnieuw in aanraking zou komen met doping. “Daarom durfden wij destijds dat risico te nemen. Maar blijkbaar zijn al die stokken achter de deur niet genoeg geweest voor hem, als er tenminste waar is wat er gezegd wordt.”

rough translation:
The team didnt have any reasons so far to think there was anything wrong. " Until recently we havent found any contradicting blood values" according to Luijks. Ricco has signed a clause stating he has to pay a fine ( not mentioning how much ) if he was found using doping again. " That was the main reason we were prepared to take the risk to sign him"
Apperently this has had no effect to Ricco.

They also claims mobile phones have been shut down and they have a hard time contacting ricco to comment on the rumours.

 

[montel]

If Ricco is blood doping in a early season race to just compete then the sport has still got massive problems.

Perfectly said...

I do tend to think he (and others) is doing it year round to keep the passport "clean".

 

[BotanyBay]

The guy is a total jerk, but more wonderfully he's like the bank robber who shoots himself in the course of the robbery. You just gotta laugh AT him!

I find nothing funny in this. Nothing.

 

[thehog]

They also claims mobile phones have been shut down and they have a hard time contacting ricco to comment on the rumours.

Well his phone is off because he's strung up in a hospital bed!!

 

[Race Radio]

It is easy to slam Ricco, he has always been a tool. You will see Pro after Pro hammer him.....but ignore that there are plenty of others just like him still in the sport. They are riders, Directors, Doctors, all enabling riders to do exactly the same thing as Ricco did.....why no question of them?

 

[Benotti69]

Jesus Christ, sometimes this stuff is just unbelievable.

tip of the iceberg

 

[hrotha]

It is easy to slam Ricco, he has always been a tool. You will see Pro after Pro hammer him.....but ignore that there are plenty of others just like him still in the sport. They are riders, Directors, Doctors, all enabling riders to do exactly the same thing as Ricco did.....why no question of them?

Exactly. Riccò is a jerk, that's for sure, and the reason why everybody in pro cycling piles on him is that he's an easy target, because everybody hates him for his big mouth and general jerkiness, and I suppose they also feel he takes doping too far by being a bit of an idiot, but it's not "clean riders" vs. "dopers", but rather "more or less responsible dopers" vs. "obnoxious dopers who make them all look bad by testing positive."

 

[Christian]

Lets add to that just because someone can afford to build a fridge into their closet and pay others to keep an eye on doesn't make them anymore sophisticated than Ricco.

Now when UCI people show up at riders' houses they have to search the house for hidden fridges after taking the urine test ...

 

[pistolero]

this is the dark side of professional cycling,a sad sad situation...imagine that guy lying in his bed making a self transfussion...after his positive in 2008,he has to start from zero,no doctors,no drugs...no results.i think it's time to clean this sport,maybe with a controlled blood levels(monitored doping if you want)under medical surveillance,i don't know how but it's time to look a GC in a tour de france and believe on it.imagine that next year someone says that lakers dont won nba title last season,it's ridiculous!sorry for my english

 

[Kender]

I always had the feeling that Ricco was an unrepentant doper and was just waiting for the time he'd test positive again and get booted out

well if this is all true he's had a massive wakeup call of the worst kind (well not quite, he will hopefully still be able to go ahead and live a normal life).
I have no sympathy for him, he brought it on himself, but it's sad it takes a hospital bed for someone to find out what they were doing was wrong.

I do have sympathy for his child who now has to live with the sigma of having a cheater for a dad. not a good role model, especially after how Ricco acted after his wife tested positive for epo. He was probably supplying her the drugs.

 

[Escarabajo]

I was going to respond to your post when I first read it, but I went and had breakfast instead. Now I see several people have said more or less what I was going to say, so this might be just a Francois the Postman style +1 to Cobblestone's post.
I think your anger is missplaced, don't hate the riders caught up in the system, hate the system. Hate the UCI for being totally responsible for the system the way it stands, for protecting the doping system and for protecting selected riders within that system. Ricco was doing what he had to do to return to the top level (and his former level) of pro racing. He's no different than Vino or Basso or Millar (well except that Millar is careful what he says) or any of the others who have returned. They all do it and the ones who get caught have no choice but to go back to doing it upon their return, because everyone they race against has continued to do it while they were away.

At some point the riders need to be accountable for their actions too.

Having said that, some people in this forum consider Ricco to be the exception, or just a bad apple. I guess they don't read the clinic as much. He is doing what a lot (if not most) of the pro-riders do in the sport. Wake up. this proves again that some things never change.

 

[VeloFidelis]

Ricco is a megalomaniacal psycho who refers to himself in the third person. Despite his talent, or more likely because of it, his problems are deeply rooted. I predict things will ultimately go badly for him ala VDB and Pantani. It is a shame, but certainly not unique.

 

[BotanyBay]

Exactly. Riccò is a jerk, that's for sure, and the reason why everybody in pro cycling piles on him is that he's an easy target, because everybody hates him for his big mouth and general jerkiness, and I suppose they also feel he takes doping too far by being a bit of an idiot, but it's not "clean riders" vs. "dopers", but rather "more or less responsible dopers" vs. "obnoxious dopers who make them all look bad by testing positive."

Bingo. He's a screw-up in their eyes. Not for doping, but for being sloppy about doing it. He's gonna mess it up for everyone.

But notice how the peloton remains silent.

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

If Ricco is blood doping in a early season race to just compete then the sport has still got massive problems.

Why do you assume that he was blood doping "just to compete" in an early season race?

Perfectly said...

I do tend to think he (and others) is doing it year round to keep the passport "clean".

Riders transfuse regularly to get around storage issues. Actually going a pint down followed by a pint up a few weeks later over and over year round is not going to make your passport look clean, FGS.