Has Basso fallen out with Discovery over DNA ? Levi thinks so…..

"All of us aren't doing the Giro, but it's a nice race," Danielson said

What a goofball! A nice race. LOL I'm afraid neither Levi or little Tommy have a chance to win.

whiteboytrash said:

[font=Verdana]"The problem is that we're in [/font][font=Verdana]America[/font][font=Verdana] and we get really excited racing in [/font][font=Verdana]America[/font][font=Verdana], so maybe if they had the Giro in [/font][font=Verdana]America[/font][font=Verdana] we'd be racing here."[/font]

say what?

Leafer said:

say what?

Giro organiser Zommegan is actually considering moving the Giro to the U.S. for 2008. It will consist of 21 stages, all of which will be a time trial up Brasstown Bald. And only Americans will be allowed to race.

would you care to make the connection between your thread title and your post?

Lemme see if I can read between the lines.

ASO says no O.P. riders unless cleared with DNA or whatever.
Bruyneel says no comment.
Then announces Levi as leader for the Tour.
Then the Giro says no O.P. riders without DNA, "yeah what he (Prudhomme) said."
Then Levi and Tommy start [censored] slapping Basso in public. ouch.

The Giro is a nice little race?
Tom Why you always have to be like that.

I have to agree with all of that Bobke..... Levi & TommyD can't wait for Basso to fall..... doesn't bode well for a strong team....

bobke said:

Lemme see if I can read between the lines.

ASO says no O.P. riders unless cleared with DNA or whatever.
Bruyneel says no comment.
Then announces Levi as leader for the Tour.
Then the Giro says no O.P. riders without DNA, "yeah what he (Prudhomme) said."
Then Levi and Tommy start [censored] slapping Basso in public. ouch.

The Giro is a nice little race?
Tom Why you always have to be like that.

Who could have said TD leader of DC at TDF ? Unbelievable!😄

poulidor said:

Who could have said TD leader of DC at TDF ? Unbelievable!😄

No need for looking into his eyes when there's a DNA test just round the corner...from today's http://www.cyclingnews.com
Italy collects Basso-related blood bags

Spanish paper details Fuentes connection

Ivan Basso
Photo ©: AFP [img]cyclingnews.comPar945127tn.jpgOpen ↗[/img] Italian cyclist Ivan Basso looks likely to face further investigations, including DNA testing, regarding his involvement in Operación Puerto. Last October the Italian cycling federation (FCI) investigation against him was shelved, and he was freed to sign with Discovery Channel. However, Spanish weekly magazine Interviú has published further papers detailing the 29 year-old's relation with Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.

Tuesday morning, La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that there is interest from a Procura italiana (Italian public prosecutor, likely Bergamo anti-doping lawyer Cristina Rota) to have the bags of blood labelled 'Birillo' (allegedly Basso's dog's name) and with the number 2 brought from Madrid to Italy. It states that this transfer, like what was done in Jan Ullrich's case, could happen sometime in the coming week, where the prosecutor could then ask for a DNA sample from Basso.

This morning Ivan Basso is slated to arrive in Charleroi, Belgium for the start of the Flèche Wallonne (Wednesday) and the Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but according to Belgian's HLN, Basso, under increasing pressure, will not start. (He faced similar pressure from his former team, CSC, at the end of 2006 when he missed out on the Giro di Lombardia.)

Interviú detailed previously unpublished papers connecting Basso with Fuentes. This article contained what it said was circumstantial evidence implicating the rider, including: 1) An agenda with a schedule of blood extractions and transfusions since 2004. In the agenda the pseudonyms 'Birillo' and '2' are used. 2) Payments in 2004 of around €35,000 and another €6000 for the freezing the blood (or "gastos de Siberia"), and an advance payment of €70,000 in 2006 'to be defined individually'; there was also a message received from Fuentes in Italian which talks of a Zurich bank account. 3) The analyses of blood, which could have been done in November 2005 in Madrid, with haematologist Merino Batres, a collaborator of Fuentes. The Spanish Guardia Civil suspect that the cyclist visited Madrid at least three times but he has always denied being there.

Further, the weekly magazine noted telephone recordings collected by the Guardia Civil, one that said 'Birillo had arrived with Simoni at sixteen seconds', This would seem to refer to Giro d'Italia stage seven, won by Rik Verbrugghe, where Basso finished 16 seconds back with Gilberto Simoni, Davide Rebellin and Serguei Gonchar.

New movie out about the Iraq war called Greed and Hubris. Should be pretty good.

Lance Armstrong plays [censored] Cheney, the over the top greedy VP breaking the rules and pushing the administration to the brink.

Bruyneel plays Toney Blair: The bumbling PM who goes along with whatever plan Cheney comes up with and then wonders why his people think so little of him.

Basso plays the head of the US industrial military complex, pleading with Cheney to do whatever it takes to keep the war going while he fills his off-shore bank accounts.

In the end, Cheney cuts Basso loose, saying in disgust that he had no idea the Italian was such a doper. Bush -- played by himself -- agrees, and says, "Bass-o must go," and announces a new cabinet post called the War Czar played by Levi Leipheimer, who understands that, if he gets caught doping then he'll get Basso treatment.

Should be good.

cadenaser.comTesOpen ↗

Basso has been suspended by Discovery today and CONI is going to re-open inquiries into Basso ´s case.

See link:

www.coni.it

portia said:

cadenaser.comTesOpen ↗

Basso has been suspended by Discovery today and CONI is going to re-open inquiries into Basso ´s case.

See link:

www.coni.it

Fark ! Riis must will be laughing into his coffee tomorrow morning... to be honest I never thought Disco would do it.....

poulidor said:

Who could have said TD leader of DC at TDF ? Unbelievable!😄

Looks like Tommy D for the Giro !

"It's a complicated situation and his participation in the Giro is now difficult," said Angelo Zomegnan, the general manager of the Tour of Italy.

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070424135736.w7z6unlq&cat=sports

In english... I have to say the tide is turning...
_____

The Italian Olympic Committee's anti-doping office said on Tuesday it had reopened a doping investigation into last year's Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso.
The committee said on its Web site (www.coni.it) that the rider had been summoned to appear before officials in Rome at 1500 local time (1300 GMT) on May 2 and had been notified personally of the summons.
It said Basso was accused of violating article 2.2 of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code concerning "use or attempted use of a prohibited substance or a prohibited method".

Basso was not available for comment immediately after the announcement.
However, he was not expected to ride in the Fleche-Wallonne race on Wednesday after not travelling to Belgium as planned on Tuesday morning.

The 29-year-old Italian won the Giro but was forced to miss the 2006 Tour de France last July after being implicated in Operacion Puerto, a Spanish police probe into blood doping by a group of doctors in Madrid.

Basso has always maintained his innocence.
Italian anti-doping investigators suspended the probe last September but said at the time it could be reopened if new evidence emerged.
Italy's La Repubblica newspaper reported on Tuesday that anti-doping investigators had discovered further evidence and had also obtained bags suspected to contain Basso's blood from Spain and wanted to compare them with Basso's DNA.
In a recent investigation carried out in Germany, DNA tests confirmed that bags of blood seized in Spain belonged to 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich.

portia said:

cadenaser.comTesOpen ↗

Basso has been suspended by Discovery today and CONI is going to re-open inquiries into Basso ´s case.

See link:

www.coni.it

portia said:

cadenaser.comTesOpen ↗

Basso has been suspended by Discovery today and CONI is going to re-open inquiries into Basso ´s case.

See link:

www.coni.it

It's interesting that Disco would suspend their star even before the DNA has been collected or any tests have been run. It doesn't come across as a ringing endorsement of confidence that they believe the test will ultimately exonerate him. I suspect they knew all along he was guilty and are acting now becuase they know a positive result is inevitable. Once Basso is DNA matched to the OP blood, the Civil Guard will be 2-for-2 in matching code names to actual cyclists, and the pressure will be enormous for other implicated riders to face the same scrutiny. The UCI, IOC, WADA and ASO are already coming together to push for such widespread testing, and I think the odds are better than 50% they'll be successful. Give the number of implicated cyclists and the sheer volume of blood bags in OP, the pro ranks could be significantly affected. In the long run, it'll be good for cycling, because it will serve as an example to other would-be cheaters that they can be caught long after fact, even if they beat the doping controls on race day.

I think Disco are playing the PR game, making sure they're doing everything to look as clean as possible in this. They gambled by hiring Basso knowing that this could come back up, it has so they go into damage reduction mode. Still, if there isn't a DNA match he'll be straight back into racing I think.

This years Giro might be more interesting without the extra-terrestial though.

whiteboytrash said:

Looks like Tommy D for the Giro !

Yes!

Eldrack said:

...Still, if there isn't a DNA match he'll be straight back into racing I think.

What are the chances of that happening?

fbircher said:

It's interesting that Disco would suspend their star even before the DNA has been collected or any tests have been run. It doesn't come across as a ringing endorsement of confidence that they believe the test will ultimately exonerate him. I suspect they knew all along he was guilty and are acting now becuase they know a positive result is inevitable. Once Basso is DNA matched to the OP blood, the Civil Guard will be 2-for-2 in matching code names to actual cyclists, and the pressure will be enormous for other implicated riders to face the same scrutiny. The UCI, IOC, WADA and ASO are already coming together to push for such widespread testing, and I think the odds are better than 50% they'll be successful. Give the number of implicated cyclists and the sheer volume of blood bags in OP, the pro ranks could be significantly affected. In the long run, it'll be good for cycling, because it will serve as an example to other would-be cheaters that they can be caught long after fact, even if they beat the doping controls on race day.

That´s it! Exactly, I, too, reckon they´ll be trapped one after the other in the long run.

Ugh. If Zomegnan says he doubts that Basso will race the Giro, then it most probably really is over for Ivan. Oh well. Makes for an interesting Giro.