Together with Fränk, we have made the decision that he doesn’t enter our race programme until we have had the chance to evaluate the outcome of this.

Nice, PR-friendly hardline approach. Though pretty meaningless with just a couple of races left to run.

He is fully prepared to give a sample of his DNA to relevant authorities to prove that he has not stored blood in Madrid or elsewhere in order to make use of illegal performance enhancing methods.

A wise move. If he’s innocent, it shows how much faith he has in his innocence. If he’s guilty, he’s betting the blood bags will be destroyed sooner than handed over the the UCI.

His full bank statements show no further transactions to the Swiss bank account.

All the better. €7k really isn’t going to buy you a doping programme. And a money trail seems the more likely route to catching cheats than waiting for DNA samples and blood bags.

His blood values from then and now show no indication of any tampering, manipulation or anything that could suggest the use of illegal substances or methods. This has been confirmed by Dr Rasmus Damsgaard, Bispebjerg University Hospital who has analyzed the values.

Damsgaard bigs up his abilities to spot oxygen vector doping, so this reads like a clean bill of health.

"We were very disappointed to hear that Fränk has been in contact with people who have done great harm to the sport and ruthlessly tarnished the most important principles that we all should adhere to in the fight against doping. His behaviour has been irresponsible towards himself and his team."

Does Riis now denounce Cecchini?

for this lapse in judgement (if we assume this is the truth) I would very much like to hear more from him.

Who are “these people”? He hasn’t met Fuentes but presumably someone else, no? You don’t just transfer 7000€ to someone on a whim.

Where does one get the tip that you can get training advice from “these people”? Presumably someone referred him to them. Who?

Just glad to finally read what happened…

I’ll still yes to marrying you Frank, i never doubted you.. Mwuuaaahhh

Haven’t we heard this one before?

See ya in two years!

Hope we don’t see Andy involved too!

From CN:

IT Factory plans to create the first web-based anti-doping control system, “available to all cyclists and the general public alike. Our aim would be to make it more equal to the journalist, the critic and the public to get information about riders and teams. We’ve been talking to laboratories and specialists that welcome the initiative.” [It Factory’s CEO Stein] Bagger explained that the participating riders’ values from the laboratories would be published on a website, accessible to all. “We could imagine a dashboard graphic with a green, a yellow and a red area and a meter that tells you whether a rider is good to race or not. We’re used to simplifying very complicated things, as we work closely with business intelligence. I’m not saying it’s an easy task, but we’ll try to create something that would make it possible to look at every individual team and have the same way to compare them. By measuring their rider’s values, you could measure the teams. That would also mean getting the information faster to the media.”

Asked whether he thought many riders would want to collaborate in publishing their medical data, the IT Factory CEO replied, “Maybe not all values, because some of them might not be interesting to the media. But if the cyclists don’t want doping, and the teams don’t – why wouldn’t they? We’d like to put up a system free for everybody, accessible from all over the world. Any rider who would like to join it is welcome and will be helped.”

his father Jonny who raced in the 70’s? He must have seen some awful stuff. Not to mention that he may feel he is a role model to Andy. I hope these things are what prevented him from making worse mistakes.

One other thing, how dumb are these cyclists? Most other criminals (if they are criminals) use cash because you can’t track it. Everyone knows this. Drugdealers don’t make transfers from bank accounts.

when “they” (whoever they is) coin it the “era” (whatever that is) we should just admit to ourselves that the sport is/was rotten to the core of cheaters. Always has been.

They all did it. Positive or not. I can not think of one rider that is not implicated in one way or another with either use of illegal methods or tied to a doctor/team of organized doping. Not a single one.

Seems like most of the Puerto buggers all used crazy kooky names like piti….

F. Schleck did have an amazing season in 2006…
Whether his Fuentes connection played a part of it, I don’t know, but color me skeptical after the press release today, what a joke, do the riders really think we fans are idiots?
He paid money for training advise to someone he did not know, yet his team is known for it’s great training, testing, team bonding etc. practices, so why did he go outside? and claim he never heard of Fuentes, who was fluiding half of the peloton, also his teammates… gimme a break.

Done nothing wrong….C’mon he paid some known dope doctor for “training”?
No laws were broken…. Spanish laws? Give me a break.
No blood stored…Dumby got popped before he could make a deposit.

This guy is as guilty as ANYONE else. Period.
If you want to put Hamilton, Basso, Ullrich, etc. in a black hole and throw away the key; add this guy to the list. And enough with the old generation line of crap, this guy was what..26 when this was going on.
GUILTY, GUILTY, and oh yeah GUILTY

Wake up, folks
Have a good weekend, though.

Don’t attack other members.
But since we started…Is it narrow minded and righteous to think a guy is guilty from a known payment.

Let’s just say that i paid a hooker 15 bucks for whatever and she happens to be an undercover cop, Guilty according to law.

I agree with all of your other points and BTW, i really don’t care if Riis doped, i like him.
Cheers,

the PR CSC put out todaywas just ridiculous.
I seriously doubt Fränk is so stupid that he paid 7000 euros to a stranger for a training program?
Does someone seriously believe that?
I don’t and I don’t like being treated as an idiot.

Take out who was involved for a moment… to me… €7000 for the elite training for someone at the highest levels of a sport = ~$10,000 (although that’s 2008 dollars) sounds about right. If I were to keep the same schedule with my trainer (which I wouldn’t be able to afford) of meeting three times a week for basic core and strength training I’d be paying 1/3 of that price over the course of a year and neither he nor I are anywhere near “elite” so… either I’m getting screwed on price or maybe Frank got a deal?

Maybe he actually got trained?

Nah…

(the angel of “wait for proof” vs. the devil of “cynicism” are wrestlin’ on ma shoulders right now)

or Dekker paid Cecchini (while he was still with him)? I’d be curious to know the fee of these doctors – not that we’ll ever know.

from these riders.

Remember how the USA caught Al Capone, Tax evasion.