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What happed with Danilo Di Luca?

Jul 17, 2009
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this dude DiLuca has done so much trip he can't look anyone in the eye.

he's got so much juice in him his face looks like Cher
 
Mar 11, 2009
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I hope he comes back with a vengeance. One of the most exciting riders of this decade.
Way too classy for the majority of fans.
 
Jul 17, 2009
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^^^^joking right?

signing with a team that raced on the euro continent as a means to avoid as many tests as he could and front his whereabouts is not class. he is not a class clown he is an AAAAssClown.
 
Mar 11, 2009
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ak-zaaf said:
I hope he comes back with a vengeance. One of the most exciting riders of this decade.

I agree with you that he was an exciting rider to watch. The duel between him and Menchov at this years Giro is one of the highlights of the season for me. I also, hope Ricco hasn't lost his fire and attitude when he returns in the coming season.
 
Apr 9, 2009
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titan_90 said:
I agree with you that he was an exciting rider to watch. The duel between him and Menchov at this years Giro is one of the highlights of the season for me. I also, hope Ricco hasn't lost his fire and attitude when he returns in the coming season.

That fire and attitude may be diminished without CERA.
 
Jun 16, 2009
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Boeing said:
^^^^joking right?

signing with a team that raced on the euro continent as a means to avoid as many tests as he could and front his whereabouts is not class. he is not a class clown he is an AAAAssClown.

+200

And Ricco without juice will be flat out fetching bidons let alone putting in big attacks. I don't get how people can think that a convicted doper is going to come back to where they were after they've spent two years on the sideline and are now under more scrutiny. Watch David Millar in a time trial recently, he's not quite at world champion level anymore and I don't think a gluten free diet has anything to do with it.

And why is this in the pro-road forum? Typing "Di Luca" should trigger an auto filter to the clinic.
 
Mar 18, 2009
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ak-zaaf said:
I hope he comes back with a vengeance. One of the most exciting riders of this decade.
Way too classy for the majority of fans.
Umm, lifelong "friendship" with Doping Dr. Santuccione, "Preadolescent hormone levels" at the 2007 Giro, recorded phone conversations about doping with Mazzoleni, and now the CERA bust--if by "classy" you mean "much of a lifelong unapologetic doper" you'd have a point. The guy was/is probably the most flagrant example of an arrogant cheat in the whole peloton. Good riddance.
 
Mar 11, 2009
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badboyberty said:
+200

And Ricco without juice will be flat out fetching bidons let alone putting in big attacks. I don't get how people can think that a convicted doper is going to come back to where they were after they've spent two years on the sideline and are now under more scrutiny. Watch David Millar in a time trial recently, he's not quite at world champion level anymore and I don't think a gluten free diet has anything to do with it.

And why is this in the pro-road forum? Typing "Di Luca" should trigger an auto filter to the clinic.

I never said that I believed that Ricco or any other rider coming off of suspension will be at the same level as when they were busted.

As long as there is $$$$$$ in any sport there will be cheating, it's just human nature. Anybody that believes that the sport is any cleaner today than it was during the 90's EPO era is just diluting themselves. At least riders like Di Luca and Ricco made the sport exciting to watch. I sure as hell don't want to watch a peloton full of non-attacking wheel-suckers.
 
Mar 18, 2009
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titan_90 said:
I never said that I believed that Ricco or any other rider coming off of suspension will be at the same level as when they were busted.

As long as there is $$$$$$ in any sport there will be cheating, it's just human nature. Anybody that believes that the sport is any cleaner today than it was during the 90's EPO era is just diluting themselves. At least riders like Di Luca and Ricco made the sport exciting to watch. I sure as hell don't want to watch a peloton full of non-attacking wheel-suckers.

Ever occur to you that the reason Di Luca and Ricco could attack and attack was because they were so jacked up on drugs they were pretty much ready to jump out of their skins and ride their own skeletons up hill? There are a lot of cleaner/cleanish--and hell, why not say it--clean riders who would love to attack but now are on the rivet just hanging on. I'm sure Cunego would have loved to attack--and Basso too--but since they aren't what they used to be (on dope) they seem to be missing that certain extra gear.

Anyway, time to go eat the Thanksgiving turkey and dilute myself heavily with pinot noir.
 
Jun 18, 2009
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Wallace said:
Ever occur to you that the reason Di Luca and Ricco could attack and attack was because they were so jacked up on drugs they were pretty much ready to jump out of their skins and ride their own skeletons up hill?

:)) briliant
 
Mar 11, 2009
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Wallace said:
Ever occur to you that the reason Di Luca and Ricco could attack and attack was because they were so jacked up on drugs they were pretty much ready to jump out of their skins and ride their own skeletons up hill? There are a lot of cleaner/cleanish--and hell, why not say it--clean riders who would love to attack but now are on the rivet just hanging on. I'm sure Cunego would have loved to attack--and Basso too--but since they aren't what they used to be (on dope) they seem to be missing that certain extra gear.

I have no doubt about either of their guilt. But there are many other riders in the same races that never got busted that were on something. They are just the one's whose luck ran out for them. I would love to see all athletes clean but, that will never happen. There will always be new and undetectable ways of doping. I just don't let the dopers ruin my enjoyment of the sport any more, I stopped watching the sport for two years after Tyler Hamilton got popped.
 
Wallace said:
Umm, lifelong "friendship" with Doping Dr. Santuccione, "Preadolescent hormone levels" at the 2007 Giro, recorded phone conversations about doping with Mazzoleni, and now the CERA bust--if by "classy" you mean "much of a lifelong unapologetic doper" you'd have a point. The guy was/is probably the most flagrant example of an arrogant cheat in the whole peloton. Good riddance.

I raced against him once in Abruzzo, he struck me as friendly and approachable. His resistance to the actions against him, however, I think needs to be placed in the greater context of his Italian culture. There is a certain, and not insignificant, segment of the Italian population that has been bread on a culture of being sly "furbo," for which the ends justify the means (which is of course Machiavellian) and one must always deny and resist those who, in bringing justice toward your crimes, are actually "unjust" since everyone else is getting away with it frankly.

DiLuca knows he has simply been playing the game as everybody else, but has had the misfortune of having been "persecuted" by authorities who are incapable of cleaning up what he knows the majority of his collegues are getting away with too. So why should "I take the fall?", is his likely alibi and moral justification. It is the same mentality which has led Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, to have his parliamentary majority pass laws ad personem to get his various business crimes (and various dealings with the mafia) un-prosecuteable. Morality is thus a relativist thing and established by one's "point of view," justice the priviledge of the mighty. Many Italians are well aware of this "unconfessable" part of their culture, which has devestated above all the civility of the South. Still I find their attitude at least to have less hypocricy in it, than the more rigid morality of my "wholesome" and "candid" American national ethos. For in the end what is wholesome?

Having said that, DiLuca's lies and denials in the face of overwhelming evidence agianst him are thoroughly irritating, just as are Berlusconi's dictatorial antics in parliament. Povero Italia. At least I know many Italians here are as conscience of and mortified by this "unconfessable" reality. They keep me in love with the place.
 
As to DiLuca (and Ricco) being buried in the pack without CERA, I have to point to another big time doper - Richard Virenque. When he "came back" from his doping scandal he wasn't as much a GC contender, but he did ride some memorable rides and got in some solo breaks and wins...

...it's also very likely Virenque was merely less doped during said comeback, and I expect the same from Ricco and DiLuca.
 

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