Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Wednesday Roundup

News
Yahoo Sports reports something that might go into the "incredible irony folder"as it seems Ivan Basso will be the new anti-doping spokesman for the UCI. Pat McQuaid speaks:

"He has made a mistake," McQuaid said. "He has paid. I believe he will interpret this role to the best of his ability, for us and for the Italian cycling federation."



Blogs

Racejunkie comments on Lampre's practically unprecedented support for positive testosterone tested rider Paxti Vila, while poor "non-cheat" cheat Alessandro Petacchi, who should be depressed, gets the fuzzy end of the "team support stick". And, Andreas Kloden for Astana captian? Andreas who?

The noise from Vila is so far unintelligible to us. He's claiming a "mild variation", but doesn't say variation of what, and he certainly got the information in his A sample report. Is this a T/E violation, or a CIR violation? He's not saying, and what he is saying suggests he's as clueless as Landis was the day of his first press conference -- and that is hard to fathom now that there is so much information about testosterone testing and sample reports available.

He says, "some parameter related to testosterone did not correspond to the levels defined by the UCI", but doesn't say what parameter, and the UCI doesn't define any of the limits, it is WADA, so he's 0-for-2 there.

If it's a claimed T/E violation, and no positive CIR, and the ratio is 6:1, with no longitudinal study support, then this is another travesty.

4 comments:

Ali said...

St David paved the way.

Ivan has enough savvy to follow that route.

I no longer even have an opinion on these matters. I'd like to wish him good luck but that may be the wrong thing to say ... or maybe not.

What the hell, good luck Basso ... play the game as it's the only way back. The authorities in cycling don't take prisoners.

strbuk said...

Yes Ali, I was going to mention "St. David" in the post about Basso, but I am personally so incredibly tired of it all, of the duplicity and disingenuousness that I figured the hell with it. What's the point if no one who can effect change ever listens?

str

racejunkie said...

In fact, Pat McQuaid compared St. Millar directly to Basso on that issue. (Link's on my site, I can try to translate some if you like). Thanks for being first with the news as always strbuk & co!

I want to believe those guys're all sincere...

Unknown said...

Ali,

play the game as it's the only way back. The authorities in cycling don't take prisoners.

I think you've hit it right on the head. He wants to race again, saw what happened to a guy that mounted a defense that should have won, compared that to where DM is at, and chose his path accordingly.