You mess with Valverde and we'll mess with you

[El Imbatido]

It seems that since the Italians will not let Valverde race on Italian soil that the organisers of the Tour of Murcia have decided to back their countryman up and have decided not to invite any Italian teams to their race.

Google translate version

Original version

To me this just seems childish, sort of tit for tat stuff. Also is this the start of further nastiness between the two countries??


I put this in the clinic because it contains discussion about a doper, even though it is alos about politics between two major cycling nations

 

[Big GMaC]

It seems that since the Italians will not let Valverde race on Italian soil that the organisers of the Tour of Murcia have decided to back their countryman up and have decided not to invite any Italian teams to their race.

Google translate version

Original version

To me this just seems childish, sort of tit for tat stuff. Also is this the start of further nastiness between the two countries??


I put this in the clinic because it contains discussion about a doper, even though it is alos about politics between two major cycling nations

this is so petty, but also may have larger consequences, after all, the Spanish must know that Piti doped, so they are basically condoning doping

 

[craig1985]

Well Valverde is Murcian, so that doesn't send out much of a shock. Hoo-ray for omerta though.

 

[Kerbdog]

Im not surprised. This is the country of the Siesta so they can feckin stay asleep if they want & pretend nothings going on.
****ers.

 

[BroDeal]

I hope the Italians retaliate. This could add a lot of drama to the season.

 

[craig1985]

I hope the Italians retaliate. This could add a lot of drama to the season.

The majority of Spanish riders don't seem to give a **** about Italian races anyway. I mean the Giro was the first time Contador had raced in Italy as a professional FFS.

 

[icefire]

Ironically, Spanish ProTour and Continental teams will not participate in the race because they were 'only' paid according to UCI rules.

 

[Anonymous]

I think the other teams should show some solidatiry and tell the tour of murcia to shove it up their ****...

Of course thats never going to happen..

 

[luckyboy]

lol, what?! Aren't there only 2 Spanish teams there as well?

Strange stuff. Well, not that strange..

 

[Ripper]

Tour of Murcia to ban Italian Teams

Here is the link.

Wow, great reasoning on this one! It's as 'revenge' against the CONI ruling. The irony is, it sounds like no top Spanish teams will be there either!

Craziness!

 

[hfer07]

That's a very stupid announcement/decision taken by the Organizers -Cycling wise & business wise the most-Considering the quality of teams & riders that took part of it last year. I hope the VaM organizers take that back and use their head, instead of their emotions, not only for the sake of cycling but even more for the Murcian community to maintain the race at the level of international participation

 

[Escarabajo]

this is so petty, but also may have larger consequences, after all, the Spanish must know that Piti doped, so they are basically condoning doping

Nothing is new. I think they have been supporting doping because Spanish Cycling has become a force to reckon with.

 

[BikeCentric]

I see the self-destructive idiocy of the people in charge of this sport continues unabated. Hooray. I guess this means that whatever Valv-Piti did to get caught up in the CONI investigation is A-okay and fully condoned in their book.

 

[Ripper]

Dang, I posted this subject under professional cycling before looking in the Clinic. Bad me!

Back to the subject, this is just a plain silly move. Say what you want about the methods of the CONI, at least they can claim to have fairly just reason for the ban. But banning all Italian teams does nothing to move anything along, it is just blatantly petty.

 

[Animal]

Petty and a blatant approval of doping.

 

[fatandfast]

A guy saying publicly that no Italians should get him a good head rattle from the UCI. I am not sure what the latest penalty is for racing at a non-sanctioned event.

 

[Michele]

It's not a very smart idea from them, plus as already said, no spanish team taking part so...what's worth?

 

[Anonymous]

And the extend of spanish corruption gets more and more obvious.

Time for the other teams to start taking sides..

I wonder considering cadels previous critique of Valverde if BMC will go to murcia?

 

[issoisso]

Actually, mpst spanish teams won't attend either. Because the organizers aren't keeping with the regulations that are set for organizers. So you're going to see Radioshack and.....no one else who actually cares for winning it.

Now do you understand why Armstrong said he'd try to win it and nothing else before the Tour? He's not going to have anyone good fighting him for it, so he's going to win it and parade it around as "proof" that he has form.

Anyway, what did you expect from an organization that two years ago faked Contador's TT time, clocking it a full minute slower than what it actually was, so that local boy Valverde could win the GC?

 

[eigenvalu2]

whoa!

is that true? i missed that one-do you have a link i can get the story from? i mean the part about -1 min from Conta's time

 

[Cerberus]

Anyway, what did you expect from an organization that two years ago faked Contador's TT time, clocking it a full minute slower than what it actually was, so that local boy Valverde could win the GC?

You're making that up right? Please tell me you are.

 

[issoisso]

You're making that up right? Please tell me you are.

No, I'm not making that up. I'm not Carboncrank

is that true? i missed that one-do you have a link i can get the story from? i mean the part about -1 min from Conta's time

It's late on friday and I'm feeling lazy, so I'm just going to do the lazy thing and link to the cyclingnews stage report and blindly trust that it mentions the case

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2008/mar08/murcia08/murcia084

But I assure you I remember it quite well. TVE, being very Madrid-centered (Contador is from Madrid) made a smallish scandal out of it in their sports section

 

[icefire]

Actually, mpst spanish teams won't attend either. Because the organizers aren't keeping with the regulations that are set for organizers. So you're going to see Radioshack and.....no one else who actually cares for winning it.

As far as I know, the reason for Spanish teams not attending is that organisers are keeping with UCI regulations for organisers, whereas the teams want to keep with another regulation agreed between Spanish teams and Spanish race organisers for races not in the Protour league.

Andalucia and Murcia are not members of that association of race organisers and they keep with UCI regulations.

Link (in Spanish)
http://www.esciclismo.com/ampliada.asp?Id=13127

Google does a decent translation:
http://translate.google.es/translat...iclismo.com/ampliada.asp?Id=13127&sl=es&tl=en

 

[issoisso]

As far as I know, the reason for Spanish teams not attending is that organisers are keeping with UCI regulations for organisers, whereas the teams want to keep with another regulation agreed between Spanish teams and Spanish race organisers for races not in the Protour league.

Andalucia and Murcia are not members of that association of race organisers and they keep with UCI regulations.

Link (in Spanish)
http://www.esciclismo.com/ampliada.asp?Id=13127

Google does a decent translation:
http://translate.google.es/translat...iclismo.com/ampliada.asp?Id=13127&sl=es&tl=en

Exactly. The spanish teams agreed on regulations with the RFEC and the ECP and the AOEC. But the organizers of those two races don't care. So the spanish teams are boycotting the races.

 

[biker jk]

Come on guys, Valverde is innocent, although I did get a worried look when he rode past and I yelled "Piti".