Tuesday Roundup

News
The VeloNews ends the speculation about who might be called by CONI in the OP affair and has announced that both Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde will be called to testify, as will Dr Eufemiano Fuentes. It appears that there may be a "tit-for-tat" involved in this as the Italian cycling authorities are said to be bitter about the treatment received by Ivan Basso in the earlier iteration of OP:

"We want to hear the doctors Fuentes and (Merino) Batres (the other doctor involved) as well as the Spanish cyclists involved in the Puerto affair," Ettore Torri told Italy's RAI radio. "It's not right to talk about re-oppening (the case). CONI prosecutors are still investigating implicated Italian cyclists.

[...]

Italian authorities are known to be bitter that while their star rider (Ivan) Basso is serving a suspension, other high-profile riders from other countries are still free to race.

"It's not fair that our top stars, such as Basso, have been suspended while other notable athletes implicated in the Spanish affair continue to race on without any consequences," added CONI prosecutor Ettore Torri.

AP, in a report found by Jean C at Rant, says a report in the German Der Spiegel is implicating several Rabobank riders -- Rasmussen, Menchov and Boogerd -- to a clinic in Austria and potential blood doping. If true, Ras wasn't an isolated example, but part of a crowd.

The CyclingNews reports that Fabio Carlino has been jailed after his drug dealing was found to have contributed to the death of former Tour de France winner Marco Pantani. In addition to the four and a half year jail term the former disco manager must also pay the Pantani family 300,000 euros in damages. In other news, next week's Tour Down Under will provide the first glimpse of how well the "blood passport" program initiated by the UCI functions. In an update this morning Alberto Contador, who faces scrutiny by CONI for his possible role in OP, says he is not concerned over the investigation:

Contador explained that "when outside forces come into cycling it's not good. Yes, I didn't ride the 2006 Tour because of Operación Puerto, because my team was excluded. At the beginning, I was suppose to be directly involved, but afterwards, I was cleared of any involvement [in Puerto] by the UCI [International Cycling Union]. So I am not concerned by this, because we are going to race in France, which has the most advanced anti-doping laws in the world."

The NY Times published this last week and we meant to post it, but alas our brain was filled to the brim with minutia and we forgot. There are many more means of "performance enhancement" than might meet the eye.

Blogs
Velocity Nation gives us the real reason why Frankie Andreu left Rock Racing. You'll need to scroll down a bit to get the "story."

Pro Bike Racing wonders if anyone even cares what happens with Floyd Landis' CAS appeal, or the newly reopened OP investigation for that matter.

Yes, some people still care.

Ruminations on Life and Cycling notes the announcement that Floyd Landis' CAS appeal will be heard starting on March 19th in NYC. He wonders what baseball would look like if its doping policies were like those of cycling. Thanks for the plug btw.

Racejunkie, in an obvious homage to The Partridge Family, says come get happy, and goes on to discuss the week's biggest cycling stories including the "love fest" at Astana.

Media
ESPN is now broadcasting the Mitchell Report Hearings for anyone who is interested.