Tuesday Roundup

News
Cyclingnews carries reaction to and analysis of the Lefevere story.


VeloNews reports that Lefevere is fighting back against the allegations noted here earlier today:

"As a result of an article published today in the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper, retaining it to be without foundation and extremely detrimental to both my personal and professional image, that of the people that currently work or that have worked with me during the past years, I'd like to announce that I have contacted my lawyer in order to act against the authors of the above said article with the objective of defending my rights," he said.

Lefevere, who has maintained a close relationship with ex-rider Johan Museeuw despite doping allegations leveled against him, heavily criticized Floyd Landis after the American tested for high testosterone en route to winning the 2006 Tour de France.

Eurosport reports that the UCI has cleared Pereiro of any doping offences (which would ostensibly allow him to be declared the TdF champion if Floyd Landis loses his appeals) but:

the UCI said the Spaniard had shown "serious negligence" when he delayed providing evidence of a medical exemption to the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) requested in September last year.

Cyclingpost.com weighs in on the Slipstream story, adding nothing new.

Bicyling's Boulder Report backs away from it a little, with more analysis.

Salem News says children need real heroes, and this is a sad time for them. No prizes for guessing who is cited as an example.

Via News24, The UCI has reiterated their declaration that Oscar didn't dope. No surprise, but it isn't them doing the re-examination of the TUE.

Blogs
Rant has Lefevere living in one of those nasty glass houses too. Among Lefevere's comments on Landis are:

Maybe we should sue Landis, why not? Why don’t we use the American way? As long as Landis continues to claim he doesn’t know about anything, such a scenario becomes more and more likely.

I want to throw up when I hear him. Landis has turned the clock twenty years backwards.

Steroid Nation ponders, how many puns can Dick Pound handle?

Colm at Infactah.com may not have known the exact location of the auction, but thought that Floyd Landis may just have convinced him that guilt proven before innocence is just so wrong (thanks to Jack).

Pelotonjim thinks that the AFLD smells blood in the water:

The AFLD is now taking front and center in the Floyd Landis and Oscar Peiero cases stating the UCI and USA Cycling are not the final arbituers of cycling.

Rural Girl is very excited to be going to camp in Temecula.

Rant notes that in the past week Pereiro has gotten a very small dose of the medicine FL has been taking for the past six months, in a pissing match between UCI and AFLD.

NashvilleCyclist not only has doubts about FL's positives following stage 17 in the TdF, but also doubts the absolute need for some of the TUEs passed out there as well.

Dugard has finished his book about the Mexican-American war.

Forums
Found at DP this AM a thread concerning allegations of Patrick Lefevere and doping. Not sure it is going anywhere but it may be of interest.

Here is TbV correspondent Marc's much appreciated translation:

"The Late News."
Accusations against Lefevere
Tues. Jan. 23, 2007. Eight figures in the cycling world made
revelations to the Flemish neswpaper Het Laatste Nieuws today
regarding Patrick Lefevere, director of the QuickStep cycling team.
According to their testimony, Lefevere is said to have been at the
center of organized doping in the cycling world for almost 30 years.

The Flemish daily published what it characterizes as 30 years of
doping, detoxification, fraud, amphetamines, and epo. Het Laatste
Nieuws bases its charges on statments by eight witnesses, six of them
unidentified.

Six of the witnesses are from the cycling world. They prefer to
remain anonymous "for fear of the consequences." Lefevere is
described as a central figure in the doping realm from the 70s right
up to today.
The two other witneses are an Italian physician and a former close
friend of Patrick Lefevere.

According to Het Laatste Nieuws, an Italian physician is said to have
examined the riders on the Mapei team directed by Lefevere in the 1990s.
"The growth hormones came from the pharmacy and the EPO was ordered
by the riders over the Internet. If you wanted to have a good
season, you had to pay between 20 and 30,000 euros, medicine
included. Lefevere knew about it. He saw what was going on, and he
approved it," the doctor declared.

"Lefevere stopped riding when he himself became dependent on the
amphetamines that he was pushing," one witness in Het Laatste Nieuws
affirmed.

“Mister Clean”
Patrick Lefevere was a professional cyclist from 1976 to 1979. He
stopped competing at age 25 and became an assistant team director.

Lefevere subsequently worked for Capri-Sonne, Kotto, and GB-MG.
In the 90s he achieved some notable successes as the director of the
Mapei team that included such well known riders as Museeuw,
Ballerini, Bartoli, and Tafi.
In 2003, QuickStep took over for Mapei. [Lefevere] remained the
director of the team, and directed such champions as Tom Boonen and
Paolo Bettini.

Patrick Lefevere seemed to be “Mr. Clean” in the cycling world. He has always insisted he was fighting against doping.

“Absolute nonsense”
Patrick Lefevere formally denies the accusations and characterizes
them as “absolute nonsence.”
He admits only that he took amphetamines seven or eight times as a racer. “The rest is nothing other than pure fiction,” he declares.

The QuickStep-Innergetic manager currently wishes to begin legal
proceedings against Het Laatste Nieuws.


Thought of the Day

“It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.”

-jh-

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