Where's Tony Rominger

[laziali]

Apologies if this has been answered, but could find it on a forum search.

One thing that has struck me is the absence of any reference to Tony Rominger in the Reasoned Decision, the Affidavits (at least those in English) or the Padua reports. As most of us know:

1. Now works at IMG. Managed convicted dopers Vino, Contador, Sinkewitz, Jaksche etc as well as Freiburg implicated Kloden.

2. Was a massive doper in the early to mid 90s. Nicknamed "EPO Tony". I remember laughing out loud back in 1992 when I read in CycleSport that his spectacular rise in fortunes upon leaving Toshiba for Clas was all down to beating his hayfever allergies.

3. Smart as paint and as cunning as Bruyneel. Not going to turn down an opportunity to make some dirty money.

But to date, he is flying under the radar on the current sh!tstorm even though one would expect to find him somewhere near the epicentre. Anyone know why???

Here's a little reminder of EPO Tony in like company:

 

[blackcat]

business relationship with Ferrari beyond master pupil coach athlete.

evans europe manager/agent too

 

[bobbins]

Managed Millar too. There is a story about his wife and Millar, anyone know else heard this?

 

[Yingge]

His time as a cyclist is maybe a few years early for the current hullabaloo, given that he retired in 1997.

Not sure if he still Manages Evans, though he did as recently as 2009, IMG lists Evans as a former client.

Like many, he is no doubt laying low.

 

[oldcrank]

FabCon, just like confessed EPO user Alex Zulle, and
EPO Tony, is also a former IMG client. And neither
Alex or Tony could ride away from the entire peloton
on the flat.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

2. Was a massive doper in the early to mid 90s. Nicknamed "EPO Tony". I remember laughing out loud back in 1992 when I read in CycleSport that his spectacular rise in fortunes upon leaving Toshiba for Clas was all down to beating his hayfever allergies.

I remember watching this
stage to Hautacam

and I did not give it (Hay fever) a second thought.

That said this is an amazing stage. People that say Indurain is boring take note...

 

[ValleyFlowers]

One thing that has struck me is the absence of any reference to Tony Rominger in the Reasoned Decision

He retired in 1997. What's his connection to the US Postal/Discovery Team?
The USADA Reasoned Decision mostly focuses on those teams in the 1999-2005 time period.

I know he was working with Astana in some capacity after 2005 and that he was the agent? for Alexandre Vinokourov and Andrei Kashechkin (and others).

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

why is tony supposed to be in the news? he was smart enough to know when to shut up, unlike armstrong. still they have nothing to do with it. romingers ris ein vuelta ealry 90s were quite ridiuclous though

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I remember watching this
stage to Hautacam

and I did not give it (Hay fever) a second thought.

That said this is an amazing stage. People that say Indurain is boring take note...

people that say indurain was boring and dropped in climbs only to make it in timetrials are idiots anyway. not to be taken serious ever again

 

[laziali]

He retired in 1997. What's his connection to the US Postal/Discovery Team?
The USADA Reasoned Decision mostly focuses on those teams in the 1999-2005 time period.

I know he was working with Astana in some capacity after 2005 and that he was the agent? for Alexandre Vinokourov and Andrei Kashechkin (and others).

That's why my OP referred to Padua as well as USADA

It's surprising he's not in the news given that he is making a pile of cash managing a bunch of dopers and has very, very close connections with 'Schumi'.

 

[blackcat]

His time as a cyclist is maybe a few years early for the current hullabaloo, given that he retired in 1997.

Not sure if he still Manages Evans, though he did as recently as 2009, IMG lists Evans as a former client.

Like many, he is no doubt laying low.

Evans was managed in Australia by Ian Thorpes manager Flaskis. Now he has a manager who was a former cricketer.

He may have left IMG when he no longer needed an agent when he left Omega Pharma and Jurgen Van Den Brocke

 

[laziali]

I remember watching this
stage to Hautacam

and I did not give it (Hay fever) a second thought.

That said this is an amazing stage. People that say Indurain is boring take note...

Thanks for reminding me of that Pedro One of my fave Tour stage of all time. Big Mig was just awesome. I still remember watching it all those years ago - Mig and Leblanc emerging through the mist at Hautacam. Mig sprinting in the drops near the top at 8% gradient to blow away Pantani. Rominger, Olano, De las Cuevas all consigned to the scrap heap. Fricking awesome! They might have been riding with c.60% hematocrit, but boy did they make full use of it that day!

 

[MrRoboto]

I remember laughing out loud back in 1992 when I read in CycleSport that his spectacular rise in fortunes upon leaving Toshiba for Clas was all down to beating his hayfever allergies.

Cured by Ferrari no less.

 

[onimod]

Evans was managed in Australia by Ian Thorpes manager Flaskis. Now he has a manager who was a former cricketer.

He may have left IMG when he no longer needed an agent when he left Omega Pharma and Jurgen Van Den Brocke

http://www.signaturesport.com.au/management/

 

[Yingge]

http://www.signaturesport.com.au/management/

Ah yes, Jason Bakker of Signature Sports is his Manager now. Was just on the AUS side, probably from the time of his WC win, but Cadel probably had no need to pay for Rominger as well after the move to BMC.

 

[ValleyFlowers]

It's surprising he's not in the news given that he is making a pile of cash managing a bunch of dopers and has very, very close connections with 'Schumi'.

Video of Tony Rominger and Michele Ferrari together. Start viewing at 6'05".
source: First EPO users in the peloton? topic

 

[minessa]

Ah yes, Jason Bakker of Signature Sports is his Manager now. Was just on the AUS side, probably from the time of his WC win, but Cadel probably had no need to pay for Rominger as well after the move to BMC.

It seems Rominger has close connections with BMC. From twitter
@julienpretotRTR
Just bumped into Yann Le Moenner, Jim Ochowicz, John Lelangue, Tony Rominger at a Maastricht restaurant - same table, yes
https://twitter.com/julienpretotRTR/statuses/249206855363067904

 

[Big Doopie]

I remember watching this
stage to Hautacam

and I did not give it (Hay fever) a second thought.

That said this is an amazing stage. People that say Indurain is boring take note...

that stage made me taste vomit in my mouth.

huge mig dropping light little epo-ridden climbers. and climbing (nay sprinting!) all the way up often with his hands low on his handlebars. completely ridiculous.

indurain is an utter fraud.

and then LeBlanc who had just gone through two awful seasons (lost over 50 mins in one stage in 1992 mountains and cried about it -- clearly not on epo when at castorama) and now with festina simply flying up mountains. fraud.

and then you have to listen to the two fraud promoters, phil & paul, coming up with all kinds of excuses to explain the complete fraud the fans are watching and they are selling...

go and watch any of the mountain stages before 1991 and it's night and day.

 

[Benotti69]

that stage made me taste vomit in my mouth.

huge mig dropping light little epo-ridden climbers. and climbing (nay sprinting!) all the way up often with his hands low on his handlebars. completely ridiculous.

indurain is an utter fraud.

and then LeBlanc who had just gone through two awful seasons (lost over 50 mins in one stage in 1992 mountains and cried about it -- clearly not on epo when at castorama) and now with festina simply flying up mountains. fraud.

and then you have to listen to the two fraud promoters, phil & paul, coming up with all kinds of excuses to explain the complete fraud the fans are watching and they are selling...

go and watch any of the mountain stages before 1991 and it's night and day.

Indurain turned me off cycling. A big guy sprinting up mountains was just not believable!

 

[la.margna]

One thing that has struck me is the absence of any reference to Tony Rominger in the Reasoned Decision, the Affidavits (at least those in English) or the Padua reports.

- he is not in USADA's RD nor Affidvait, why should he??!!! matter of fact. shall they go back to Ferrari doping ehm coaching Francesco Moser??!! The idea of USADA's RD is not to provide a list of all Ferrari clients over all his years of doping activity, it's not their mission. And again, if no one of these guys said anything against person x, obviously that person does not appear in the papers. He is also from a substantially different generation of cyclists, considering he retired back in 97. Enough Lance mentioned Rominger in his books, not?
- Also the Padua investigation is from the current century and obviously Tony does not appear in there...

1. Now works at IMG. Managed convicted dopers Vino, Contador, Sinkewitz, Jaksche etc as well as Freiburg implicated Kloden.

- If you start a hate thread against a retired rider, at least make sure you get it right and omit inaccuracies. Tony left IMG years ago. Yes, he managed numerous riders, some of them that were tested positive (you forgot Matze Kessler for example), but that's not Tony's fault if he connects them to one of the best specialists in the field of "sports medicine" - interestingly Eufemanio and not Michele - and the riders f.ck up. If you're to stupid to pass a doping test you don't deserve a place in the peloton. Except Vino, he bought himself out with paying Fat Pat a nice "all inclusive" trip to Kasachstan and was allowed back in like nothing ever happened. What a hypocrite UCI. I haven't seen Tony in a while and actually lost contact, but last time he was running his own show here in Switzerland called TM Management AG or something like this.

2. Was a massive doper in the early to mid 90s. Nicknamed "EPO Tony". I remember laughing out loud back in 1992 when I read in CycleSport that his spectacular rise in fortunes upon leaving Toshiba for Clas was all down to beating his hayfever allergies.

Who of the top riders in the 90s was not a massive doper? (Doesn't make it any better, I know) EVERY rider I know from the 90s was on it. EVERY rider. And there are a few who won quite a few races, believe me. His hayfever allergies war definitely a massive problem and have always caused him terrible problems during these periods. What else do you expect a rider to tell? Yes, Michele provides me with these EPO injections that everybody else also uses and cannot be found in dope tests??!

3. Smart as paint and as cunning as Bruyneel. Not going to turn down an opportunity to make some dirty money.

To compare him with Bruyneel is absolutely wrong. He gave quite some interviews regarding doping and Ferrari, was never a *** and attacked journalists and for anybody with a brain it was quite obvious what went on and what he was on when reading it. I remember a particular article in german newspaper "DIE ZEIT" on this, but also a few others. However, the interview he gave subsequent to Puerto were different, there as a manager he was denying everything, particularly that he sent his riders to Fuentes. That was the first time I hear him telling a lie ever.

But to date, he is flying under the radar on the current sh!tstorm even though one would expect to find him somewhere near the epicentre. Anyone know why???

why should he care? if the media don't ask him there's no need for him to come and tell us anything. he was never the extroverted communicative guy. the shiny silent swiss accountant that he initially was, before he started riding as a pro at age of 23 if I remember correctly. And Michele was almost freaking out when he measured his thighs.

A great rider and nice guy in a rotten environment who has become a bit of a *** as a manager, but definitely wasn't before.

Unfortunately, for clean cycling, loads of these EPO omertà boys from that generation are still well connected behind the scenes of cycling and heavily involved. Also confirmed by seeing Tony having dinner with Ocho, LeLangue, etc. Long way to go to clean that beautiful sport. A highly demanding and almost impossible task. But let's get it ****ing done!!

 

[AussieEdge]

Unfortunately, for clean cycling, loads of these EPO omertà boys from that generation are still well connected behind the scenes of cycling and heavily involved. Also confirmed by seeing Tony having dinner with Ocho, LeLangue, etc. Long way to go to clean that beautiful sport. A highly demanding and almost impossible task. But let's get it ****ing done!!

If we had lifetime bans from the beginning instead of this 2 year crap then it wouldn't be an issue

Now the horse has bolted

 

[la.margna]

Btw, a few interesting things from that Zeit article to add:

1) luckily there was no blood passport back then
Tony's (alleged) hematocrit levels, always low off season and right up (even above 50!) when they needed to be:
1989-12-21: 38.8 young, healthy and fit Tony off season
1992-02-27: 39.0 off season
race values (unfortunately no dates): 48.2, 50, 52. 55.5 and even 56.5 in 97!

2) when asked what to do against doping (rough translation, summarised over article):
there's not much you can do. and people would like to have spectacle. if you wanna ride for fun, get a job and ride your bike after work at 19h. we must do everything possible to protect the young riders from doping, but with the pro's it's difficult, maybe just legalise it.

3) when first meeting Ferrari in an alpine camp as a young rider (as already mentioned), Ferrari almost freaked out in a positive way and made a compliment after measuring his thighs. Very seldom Michele made compliments. He said that his legs hat the same leverage force ("Hebelkraft") like Eddy Merckx.

 

[la.margna]

If we had lifetime bans from the beginning instead of this 2 year crap then it wouldn't be an issue

Now the horse has bolted

yeah. lifetime bans from all functions within a pro cycling team or licensed cycling club. the only language that these ****ers might understand.

 

[Tinman]

Unfortunately, for clean cycling, loads of these EPO omertà boys from that generation are still well connected behind the scenes of cycling and heavily involved. Also confirmed by seeing Tony having dinner with Ocho, LeLangue, etc. Long way to go to clean that beautiful sport. A highly demanding and almost impossible task. But let's get it ****ing done!!

Thanks for this post, very informative.

 

[blackcat]

lifetime bans is the worst policy and most unjust.

So Ricco goes, whilst riders like Frank and Andy and Armstrong ride their entire careers with the saucepan outta their @rse.

lifebans only work if
1. there is universality in its implementation
1(b) this presuposes, that tests are 100% accurate for EVERY dope transgression, EVERY transgression, every act of doping.

And we know that is IMPOSSIBLE.

Lifetime bans just entrenches injustice.