More Doping News from Italy

What a strange world is the world of sports reporting "made in Italy"!

There is a president of a cycling team - one who has been in the business for 25 years, Ivano Fanini - who in the days leading up to the Worlds atVarese declared:

A) At the Worlds a doper will win;

B) The Italian riders withdrew from the Vuelta a few days early, without motive, to "refuel", that is to take doping products far from public view;

C) Bettini was informed of his "surprise controls" and often, during the race, warned the teams that they would be subject to controls in the evening or the next morning;

D) The big names know in advance whether at the end of the race there will or won't be anti-doping controls;

E) I have reported the facts, told to me by my riders, by telephone and in writing to the presidents of the League and the Federation, but to no avail;

F) At the Giro D'Italia of 98, won by Pantani, there was an exchange of samples between Pantani and Forconi and the domestique was sent home in place of his captain as the result of a positive test;

G) This fact was told to me the next day in my office by Forconi himself, my ex-rider, in the presence of a number of witnesses whose names I can supply.

Fanini says these dreadful things - and much more - in a long interview under my byline (Ziliani) published in "La Stampa", an interview that on the eve of the Worlds (Saturday 27th September) was republished almost entirely by the French newspaper "Liberation", and read the replies of Bettini increasing the dose (hardening the tone?) in a pair of press releases that the agency Ansa sent out, the last at 17.44 on Friday 26th September. Well: despite the gravity of the accusations (to repeat on of them: the current world champion is informed by the "Palace" of his surprise controls and the useless complaints forwarded to the League and Federation), there is not one newspaper, TV report or news that passes on this news to its readers or viewers.

... Post continues with more reproaches for the Italian media.

Translated from the blog of Paolo Ziliani

Here's the full Fanini interview from La Stampa:

Fanini: The big names have left the Vuelta to carry out preparations at home. And if they are intelligent they beat the controls.

He doesn't mince his words, Ivano Fanini, 57 years old, President of the cycling team Amore & Vita-McDonalds, when he speaks about the heavy air that you breath in a group, five days away from the race that is the highlight of the professionals, the Worlds at Varese.

Fanini, what sort of Worlds will it be?

Ivano Fanini: If the people at RAI were to do things properly on sunday, at the time of the presentation of the professional road-race rainbow, they would put up a caption that says: "Rider Tizio, Gold Medal, Doper. Rider Caio, Silver Medal, Doper. Rider Sempronio, Bronze Medal, Doper."

Your accusations are very serious.

I know, but what will happen is what has happened for years in the Giro, the Vuelta and the Tour: a rider who dopes will win, otherwise he couldn't do it, and he will beat a rider who dopes and another who dopes. And if the "treatments" have been done in an "intelligent" way then the anti-doping won't be a problem.

He explains better.

You saw what happened in the last week of the Vuelta? All the big names who are aiming to win the Worlds and their helpers returned home without a justifiable reason. I asked my Sporting Director, Pierino Gavazzi, who was three times champion of Italy and won one San Remo, why this happened. And he replied that the riders return to do what insiders call "refuelling" (rifornimento), that is to take EPO far from indiscreet eyes. And the thing riders call "treatment". They all do that, the big names who need to win and the helpers who have to help them to win. The only precaution: to stop a few days before the race so as not to leave traces on the fateful day.

But someone is caught from time to time.

Small fry. Youngsters generally get caught in the net, like Ricco and Sella. After the many doping cases in which he was caught up as an amateur, Ricco deserved to be disqualified for life. As far as Sella is concerned, up to a year ago he was a normal rider. The problem is, at the Giro 2008, he became a phenomenon: and also in his case the explanation bore the name of the new EPO, CERA. Also he in a certain sense paid for his inexperience. Such errors would not for sure be made by a Piepoli, the long shadow of Ricco. In truth his team fired him regardless because no-one any longer trusts someone like him.

Ricco's dismissal from the Tour has revived the ghosts of Pantani, sent home in the Maglia Rosa at Madonna do Campiglio on the 5th June 1999.

It's true. But no-one knows that also the previous year, at the Giro in '98, where he won triumphantly, Pantani should have been sent home. Instead in his place was dismissed Forconi, a helper. Who on the next day, since he was an ex-rider of mine who spent 6 years with me at Amore & Vita, came to find me in my office and told me everything. "They changed the samples and sent me home. I was the only one at Mercatone to have low values" he said. Riccardo was an average domestique, worth 20-30 million lire a year. Well after this episode, and this disqualification, he built himself a villa in the hills of Empoli, and made himself a position. Today he works with Beppe Martinelli, the Sporting Director at that time, and is the team manager of Vangi, a highly regarded amateur club.

We have talked about Ricco, Sella, Piepoli, but among the riders disqualified in diverse cases are also Basso, DiLuca, Petacchi...

It's a situation from which there is no return. A year ago at the Giro, after the stage on the Zoncolan, Di Luca, Ricco, Simoni and Mazzoleni were subject to surprise controls. The four best-placed Italians in the classification. Well, all four produced the pee of the angels, showing the hormonal profile of a seven year old child. It makes you laugh. Notwithstanding this, I believe that Di Luca continues to maintain his relationship with the super-disqualified Doctor Santuccione. And Ricco's masseuse is still Pregnolato who followed Pantani and was caught up in the raids of NAS at San Remo, in the Giro of 2001, with a heap of stuff in a suitcase and was then disqualified. Not to mention Basso who was involved in Operation Puerto, has told a pile of lies, and now is ready to come back, as bright as the sum.

What should we do?

Disqualify for life any athlete found positive. And extend automatically the disqualification to the team manager, or sporting director, because no-one believes any longer in the little virgins betrayed by their pupils. Two years ago, after the mess that it got in to with its riders, Milram fired on the spot the D.S. Stanga - who knew everything - and that was right. And I wonder: what is left to do in cycling for one such as Bjarne Riis? Someone who has cheated all his life, who has won a Tour doped, and who after the destruction caused by d.s. is still there, on the flagship, and has just won the Tour de France with Sastre who even on the podium in Paris was not ashamed to thank Manolo Saiz, a man who is the principal architect of doping in cycling together with the doctors Ferrari and Santuccione.

You are the President of Amore & Vita-McDonalds and for many years have been beating a sword ???? against doping. Why do you do it?

Up until '98 I was a manager like any other, I did the same as everyone else. My team won fifteen races, including at the Giro and Vuelta, with riders who doped. Then I started to see young men who were ill, I started to count the dead, and I rebelled. Do you want to know how many of my riders have died in recent years? Six. And three in the last three seasons: Galletti, Cox and Fois. I hired the thirty year old Galletti on the condition that he would no longer touch drugs and he reinvented himself to the point that he became a loyal gregario of Cipollini. He died in a race two years ago. Cox, a South African, had talent and at twenty-three years old he went to Barloworld: at 28 he died in his country, abandoned by everyone, after an unnecessary operation in France for vascular problems caused by taking banned substances. Fois was the last, about 6 months ago. He died with the jersey of Amore & Vita in his wardrobe. As I have often done with many riders in trouble, I hired him to give him back a purpose in life, to take him off the street. He was recovering. I didn't do that.

But the TV commentators and their guests, when Ricco wins "Pantani-style" lose themselves in ?peana?

They know everything but stay silent. And when the dirty business comes about they pretend to tear their clothes. The important words are "business & spectacle"; the rest doesn't count. And the health of the riders matters less than ever. It's a tragedy because many of these young men, when they undergo long disqualifications or cease to ride, pass from doping to cocaine or to other addictive drugs. Just as happened to Pantani, to Jimenez and to Fois, who unfortunately are no longer with us.

And the next day La Stampa published an interview with Amore & Vita-McDonalds DS Piero Gavazzi.

PZ: Piero Gavazzi, you are the Sporting Director of Amore & Vita-McDonalds, Ivano Fanini's team. Is it true that when you spoke to your President a few days ago you told him that the riders who wanted to win the Worlds returned from teh Vuelta a week early to carry out "refuelling", that in cycling jargon means to take doping substances?

PG: Listen, I'll make it clear. If my President asks me a question I tell him things as they are, and there are things that everyone on the inside knows. You journalists too. Certainly I didn't expect that Fanini, the next day, was going to tell what I had told him to journalists. I feel a little betrayed.

PZ: So, Fanini has made it public, not in the best way perhaps, but he hasn't made anything up.

PG: No, but I'll say it again, try to understand me. If my President asks me something about doping I give him one answer; but if a journalist asks me the same thing, well I'm sorry but I give him a different one.

PZ: Let's make it clear for one last time. When someone in the know, like you, says that a rider is going to "refuel", does that mean that he is going to eat a jam sandwich or that he is going to take illegal drugs.

PG: Look, everyone knows what it means. Anyhow, the rider is the least to blame in this whole situation; it's cycling that has made him do that. If you want to win the Giro, or at least try, you can't do it on bread and water. And if you want to win Roubaix, or at least try, you can't do it on bread and water. It's impossible to get through these races without ... how to put it: help. And anyway, why do I have to be the one who tell how to get on in the world in which we all live? Everyone has their own eyes, above all you journalists. And if you want to know, I believe that Fanini was wrong. First of all, saying those things harms the team because then everybody in the races you contend is against you. And then, he is wrong because by himself he can't do anything. I've told him this: Ivano, you have to convince the famous ex-riders, the Mosers and the Saronnis, who have children who ride bikes, to take the fight forward all together. Doing it by yourself is a lost cause.

PZ: In reality there aren;t many inclined to follow. On the contrary, to the world of cycling Fanini is a kind of plague victim

PG: I don't know how to say it. Fanini is right but he needs to understand that cycling has always been like this. A kid who wants to take to the road relying only on his strength can, if he goes well, arrive seventh or eighth. As long as he is brave.

PZ: With regard to your time, what has changed?

PG: Everything, I would say. That was a different sort of cycling. Moser and Saronni raced from February to October, from Laigueglia to Lombardia, and before the Giro d'Italia they raced the Giro di Romandie. There wasn't the time for so much mischief, even if everybody, me above all, was looking for help. Then perhaps you would notice something else. For example that the Giro was always fixed (?preparato?) so that Moser and Saronni would win. There were no opponents, there were no climbs, after two stages you would realise that half the group had been bought. As I said, it was different. Today I read that Armstrong wants to come back to win another Tour. Well he is the classic example of a rider who demonstrates what needs to be done today to win an important race: hide yourself away for six months to be the strongest of all on the day, or month, that counts. A season that lasts in total 3 weeks.