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The Bertagnolli affidavit

... is most interesting. I can't translate all of it, of course, but I feel there are some very relevant parts the Clinic would be eager to discuss.

* Bertagnolli started working with Ferrari in 2006, to have his thyroid problems treated.

* In July 2007, he went to St. Moritz to see Ferrari, who provided him with EPO, to be injected intravenously. Bertolini, Chicchi, Gasparotto and Pellizotti were with him in St. Moritz. Bertagnolli also recalls seeing Vinokourov and a group of other cyclists with Ferrari in Livigno, 2006.

* Bertagnolli started taking EPO in 2003, as advised by doctor Manelli, but in a very amateuristic way: Ferrari showed him how to use the product properly, in order not to test positive.

* A lot of Bertagnolli's Liquigas colleagues also went to Ferrari: he names Pellizotti, Chicchi, Gasparotto... and Kreuziger. He recalls seeing Popovych and Bileka at Ferrari's house and also mentions Morris Possoni.

* In 2007 Bertagnolli started with blood transfusions. Ferrari told him which refrigerator to buy to store his blood in the best way (at the right temperature). He stored his blood in plastic bags. He affirms he did not transfuse blood prior to working with Ferrari, and it scared him a lot.

* In 2008 Liquigas forbid its riders to work with Ferrari, so Bertagnolli only performed a single transfusion. In 2009 he did "some", in 2010 the transfusions were three.

* Bertagnolli met Ferrari at the end of 2010. Ferrari told him to "throw away all evidence", because he knew of the ongoing Popovych investigation. Ferrari told him to consider using polypropylene blood bags or "flebi di vetro" (an object in glass used for transfusions).

August 27, 2010: in an intercepted conversation in Ferrari's mobile camper, Ferrari and Bertagnolli talk about a number of riders and doping practices:

* Bertagnolli says "everybody is going a little slower"; Ferrari says it's because the riders don't take EPO anymore

* Bertagnolli says "Pozzovivo hurts us on the climbs"; Ferrari says it's because he weighs about 50 kg; Bertagnolli answers he never ever saw him do things like that, "he's all muscles"

* Ferrari says some riders are using AICAR, but the product can be detected and it has to be imported

* Bertagnolli says the product comes from Slovenia; he names Grega Bole and Spilak as possible users, and also Chiarini

* Ferrari thinks it's madness to use AICAR because the molecule is easily detectable

(some less important parts and an interruption in the registration)

* Bertagnolli thinks "for Scarponi it's important to see how the Petacchi case will pan out"

* Ferrari responds Petacchi is in trouble although Bernucci took all of the blame

* Bertagnolli thinks it's incredible some riders still go to Manelli (the first doping doctor Bertagnolli himself consulted): Astarloa, Bernucci, Celestino and Honchar were some of his clients, and they all tested positive

* Ferrari asserts the Mapei Lab is a joke and the tests there don't prove anything

* Retacrit is another detectable EPO molecule; Maccanti and Biondo have been found positive for NESP after using Retacrit and thus, Ferrari thinks it's a molecule for "suicidal fools"; he wonders why the testers don't always detect it

Another conversation, September 28, 2010 (due to technical problems the Italian police only recorded the first 30 minutes of the conversation):

* Ferrari shows he's better at interpreting blood data than the UCI

* Ferrari is "obsessively monitoring" the blood data of his clients

Some pages seem to be missing here, or I didn't read the document too well.

December 1, 2010, another conversation:

* Ferrari asks Bertagnolli which blood bags he used, Contador might have used bags in PVC, Bertagnolli has been using polypropylene bags which are not detectable, so he's not in trouble

* some stuff about blood transfusions, no details

* riders who want to dope can't go to Teide anymore because the place is "bruciata" - monitored and known by the antidoping authorities

* Ferrari speculates someone in the lab might have spiked Contador's blood with clenbuterol

* Bertagnolli asks if Contador might have used Actovegin, but Ferrari says no; "Actovegin is made of calf's blood, normally they don't use clen for that"
 
Thanks! Was waiting for someone to translate this. To me it seemed like Liquigas riders had the blessing of Amadio to work with Ferrari.

Weird how much they discuss Pellizotti/Valjavec/Contador cases too.

That Pozzovivio line is great, Bertagnolli thinks he's charging big time and Ferrari shuts him down.

What does he mean about the Mapei tests? They don't detect doping (or does he mean physiological tests?).
 
Oct 16, 2010
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interesting that Ferrari seems to think AC blooddoped, and that the plasticizer positive is real, but that he was however spiked for Clen. the spiking part seems unlikely, doesn;t it? Not that Germans are holy, but still, to spike a sample with nanograms of Clen...?
 
I forgot to translate some interesting parts on AICAR: "it's a powder", "it's only for experimentational purposes, experiments on humans, that is" and "it's extremely expensive".

Ferrari states "it can be traced easily because it's not body-own, maybe they won't see exactly what it is but they can see the peaks and sooner or later they will detect it, like in the Balco case". The testers use "mass spectometry" with some kind of base line and subsequently they should always be able to detect a peak of a certain molecule, they might not know for sure it's AICAR but they can easily see there's something wrong.
 
Ferminal: actually Bertagnolli insinuates Pozzovivo's using AICAR as well, and Ferrari neither confirms nor denies it, as he doesn't know anything about Pozzovivo's program or even about whether he's doping or not.

When Bertagnolli talks about Actovegin, he means "contaminated Actovegin".

In 2010, Ferrari states clearly "EPO is for suicidal fools". By the way, "pazzi suicidi" is one of his favorite expressions when talking about EPO users and Retacrit is "un'epoteina del cazzo". It seems the EPO days are really over.

On the Mapei lab: Ferrari says they are using the wrong methods, "anybody who goes there is on the list with the Good Ones while the methods they use are prone to errors".
 
Oct 16, 2010
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Sylvester said:
Some other products are mentioned, but as the conversations are recorded the products are not always named. There's no specific mention of HGH as far as I can see.
thanks alot, Sylvester, for the efforts of translating&summarizing.
 
one has to admit, ferrari looks like a fairly smart guy :eek:

also i think i read something about nibali and lulu on the inner ring lats night, i actually have been waiting for this thread to show up mostly because of nibali.

is he really mentioned there?
 
Parrulo said:
one has to admit, ferrari looks like a fairly smart guy :eek:

also i think i read something about nibali and lulu on the inner ring lats night, i actually have been waiting for this thread to show up mostly because of nibali.

is he really mentioned there?

Not in the Bertagnolli statement.

Nibali's name is only mentioned as being part of the team Bertagnolli rode for.

Bertagnolli's time at Liquigas precedes Nibali's breakthrough seasons of 2009/2010.
 
Parrulo said:
one has to admit, ferrari looks like a fairly smart guy :eek:

also i think i read something about nibali and lulu on the inner ring lats night, i actually have been waiting for this thread to show up mostly because of nibali.

is he really mentioned there?

Not in the Bertagnolli affidavit. I'll try to summarize the Bileka affidavit later on, but Bileka only talks about Pozzato, Garzelli, the Masciarelli brothers, Klöden, Kessler, LL Sanchez. The other riders are all named by Bertagnolli too (Kreuziger, Vino, Gusev etc.). No Nibali.
 
Mar 31, 2010
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pozzovivo the next to fall

thank you bertagnolli lol. it's all in italian papers today. ferrari even said he's a sucky rider: "come on he's only 50 kg, and now he flies." followed by laughing and talking about aicar

goodbye pozzo I never trusted you :)
 
threads merged:

from the conversation btw bertagnolli and Ferrari:

* Bertagnolli says "Pozzovivo hurts us on the climbs"; Ferrari says it's because he weighs about 50 kg; Bertagnolli answers he never ever saw him do things like that, "he's all muscles"

so ferrari himself shuts bertagnolli on pozzovivo.

also interesting on all of this, kreuziger's lack of improvement from when he was only like 21 seems to have a much simpler explanation then early physical peak :eek: