Hot off the Fuentes rumor mill!

[paczki]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2008/sep08/sep27news

[Viper]

****!!! The Schlecks are my boys.

If this is correct and goes the way it most likely will, it only further advances the notion that yes, the sport is still, for a large part, dirty.

It's looks to be a rumor with legs, we'll stay tuned. :mad:

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . and attempting to be as fair as possible to the Schlecks. Did Fuentes also do legit training activities and charge for them? Is it possible that Schleck may have paid Fuentes for absolutely legit services--training plans, analysis, testing--and not been part of Fuentes' doping activities? did Fuentes necessarily supply doping services to EVERY one of his clients, or just the ones he felt could be "turned to the Dark Side?"

I recognize that may sound naive, but I'm just trying to give this guy a fair benefit of the doubt.

BBD

[jeffg]

I read this in the Sueddeutsche this morning.

If you are getting legit services, you don't use code names ... Sounds more like Basso, Ullrich, etc. ... assuming the SZ story is legit. They have been known to publish stories in this area that have not ultimately been proven

[1centaur]

After the Schlecks sailed up ADH I pointed out that those who said it was obvious Ricco doped because of how he rode were strangely silent on the Schlecks. That French car search of their father also seemed targeted, despite the spin.

That said, I like the way those guys ride and hope that there is nothing to this. If the CSC testing protocol (and the French) missed them, then we can have no faith in Astana or Lance 2009 (no snide remarks please).

[duke]

I am shocked, absolutely shocked....Riis would never allow something like that to go on.
duke

[paczki]

Maybe this explains why Cervelo pulled away to form their own team.

[mikki]

After the Schlecks sailed up ADH I pointed out that those who said it was obvious Ricco doped because of how he rode were strangely silent on the Schlecks. That French car search of their father also seemed targeted, despite the spin.

That said, I like the way those guys ride and hope that there is nothing to this. If the CSC testing protocol (and the French) missed them, then we can have no faith in Astana or Lance 2009 (no snide remarks please).

What do you mean? If they are now hip to this newer version of the drug, why do you think Lance or the Astana team would be able to dupe the authorities?

[1centaur]

What do you mean? If they are now hip to this newer version of the drug, why do you think Lance or the Astana team would be able to dupe the authorities?

I mean 2 things.

First, the logic goes like this: If Lance doped and got away with it, it was because his methods were so good he could evade all the then-current testing protocols reliably. New testing protocols and a new determination have since arrived in pro cycling, with teams like CSC leading the charge from the team side by hiring supposedly above reproach people to run internal protocols - a pincer movement, if you will. If highly visible members of that team could evade both the authorities and their internal controls, then one or both methods are significantly flawed. If that is true, then Lance hiring his own guy and facing the same external controls could be presumed to be a useless assurance of prevention - objectively, the state of the art would be shown to be insufficient and if (big if) Lance was willing to dope before than he should be willing to dope again knowing the state of the art would be insufficient.

Second, even if Lance has always been as pure as the driven snow, the implications of a flawed current system would mean that Astana, Contador and Lance would get very little buy-in from people with the slightest amount of skepticism. There's a continuum from the full believers to the intractable dismissers. Most casual fans are somewhere in between. The sport could use a clean Astana/Lance story to bring back some fans in the middle of the continuum. But the system needs to be credible for that to happen.

Now, the story on Frank Schleck is from the old days, and the story of CERA is not yet linked to CSC, so we can hope that CSC's system is working even if the Fuentes/Riis story has legs and we can hope that CERA is the only new doping choice out there (unlikely). Lance knew about Ricco's experience when he announced his comeback, so if he's planning on doping, we can presume it does not involve CERA (unless it's all in the technique of course).

That's what I meant.

[paczki]

Ten years ago:

"The drugs scandal update
With the Tour de France now over the recriminations are due to begin with judicial police authorities declaring an all-out offensive against drug smuggling and use within the cycling peloton.

Bernard Gravet, the Director for Judicial Police, said that the judges in Lille and Reims will go all the way to stamp it out and bring criminal charges against those involved. Rodolfo Massi is the first to be charged with dealing in banned substances. The police are putting pressure on the politicians in France to bring in tougher laws. These will be considered in the last quarter of 1998.

The TVM team is due to be heard in Reims today. Their masseur, Jan Moors has been held in custody since the team was taken in for questioning last Tuesday in Albertville. A suitcase was seized and contains evidence so the police say. The five TVM riders - Bart Voskamp, Servais Knaven, Serguei Outschakov, Serguei Ivanov and Stephen de Jongh - are scheduled to appear today.

The team manager Cees Priem and Russian doctor Andrei Mikhailov have been held in custody after being placed under official investigation. Two matters are of concern - the March discovery of a large stash of drugs in the team truck on the way back from the Tour of Valencia, and the discovery on Tuesday night.

But don't think that justice can't wait! The Festina enquiry in Lille, seemingly so urgent while the bike race was on, is now in abeyance while the judge goes on holiday.

The police have admitted that they are in no hurry despite trying to wreck the bike race in what seemed to be an indecent haste. They have openly said that the riders who they are putting pressure on a slowly realising that it is better to talk.

The information that Festina riders have already given the police has led to many more riders coming under suspician. Birds have talked.

Meanwhile, at the weekend, Bjarne Riis, angrily denied he had told the police that it was Massi who was involved."