Valverde's Team?

[sspielman]

I don't know if anybody has been following any of this, but it seems that the rumors are flying about Valverde's contract with Caisse d'Epargne being bought out by T-Mobile and a huge salary being paid to him for switching to that team. Good news for Alejandro, but bad news for his former (?) team...Wasn't this sort of headhunting supposed to be prohibited under the ProTour rules?
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/jan07/jan09news2

[Russell]

I don't know if anybody has been following any of this, but it seems that the rumors are flying about Valverde's contract with Caisse d'Epargne being bought out by T-Mobile and a huge salary being paid to him for switching to that team. Good news for Alejandro, but bad news for his former (?) team...Wasn't this sort of headhunting supposed to be prohibited under the ProTour rules?
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/jan07/jan09news2

Valverde is now implicated in the Dr. Fuentes (sic) drug bust.

[sspielman]

Isn't it interesting how Valverde became implicated in Operacion Puerto just when he was on the verge of signing a contract outside of Spain for real money....

[jeffg]

Isn't it interesting how Valverde became implicated in Operacion Puerto just when he was on the verge of signing a contract outside of Spain for real money....

This whole thing just sucks atmo. Basso signs but is blackballed in some quarters, Ullrich is out to sea, Valverde continues to race with no consequences.

My vote is that either charges are pressed or the whole matter evaporates.

And to add to the hypocrisy: T-Mobile's grab for Valverde is in effect no different from Disco's poaching of Basso. The Pro Tour teams are just bitter Disco got Basso. When Riis let him go Basso was still refusing to give a DNA sample even though the Italians had shelved the case as far as recall. If Basso had been willing to do so for Riis, I doubt Riis would have let him go.

Just like Flaccid **** making up stats about hockey players and patently misstating the facts in the Landis case (testosterone so high he must have been violating every virgin within 100 miles) ...Are you kidding?! If Pound knows (or disregards) so much of the facts when he sounds off to the press, what faith can you have in the process?

Thw WWE has more integrity than this ...

[iml]

T-Mobile backed away when they learned Valverde wouldn't play by their new rules and could be outed as one of Eufemiano's best patients. So, I'm not so sure their flirtation with Valverde is equivalent to Disco and Basso. I'm willing to give the new T-Mobile a bit of benefit of the doubt, at least for now. Time will tell - maybe? - whether it's more of the same.