Mazzoleni Out of the Tour

by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 28, 2007 2:16 PM EDT in News

Hat tip to Lucybears who mentioned this below, which I confirmed (if you can call guessing at a German annoucement confirmation) at the Astana fan page. Giro 3rd-place finisher Eddy Mazzoleni's racing career is on hold since he's been caught in the dragnet as part of the "oil for drugs" investigation. [Aside: as for the name, I am truly not in on the joke. Are people protesting at races chanting "no drugs for oil!"?] Anyway, Mazz testifies before CONI next week, and unlike Petacchi, Mazzoleni might be under investigation for a little while, which under the Pro Tour ethics code means he's in for some unscheduled vacation this summer.

Tweet Comment 26 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

OK, the news is on the fan site

but not the official Astana site yet. Wonder where the fansite got their info?

by bethie on Jun 28, 2007 2:48 PM EDT reply actions

RAI

Got a problem? Va fa Napoli!

by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 28, 2007 3:49 PM EDT up reply actions

David Canada

to ride for SDV instead of Angel Gomez Marchante.

From Velo-club.net:

Il y a un changement dans l'équipe de Saunier Duval pour le Tour de France : David Cañada remplace Angel Gomez Marchante.

The Gravity Assisted Flyers

by Clydesdale on Jun 28, 2007 3:40 PM EDT reply actions

Has anyone heard more on this?

Nothing on CN or the SDV website yet. Is he injured? I was looking forward to seeing him.

by Jens on Jun 29, 2007 7:34 AM EDT up reply actions

Looks like he is undergoing some more tests

for an ongoing problem.

From Todocilismo.com: (Google translation)

Go'mez Marchante will lose the Tour by disease 29/6/2007
Infortunio seems to have fattened with Jose Angel Go'mez Marchante in this 2007. In spite of his high productivity during all his season, the Madrilenian, who has not been able to release his square of triumphs in this campaign, has undergone in addition different physical problems that made him lose some of their great objectives, like the classic ones from spring.

Now, Go'mez Marchante has been itself forced to resign to last hour to their presence in the nine of the Saunier Duval for the Tour of France, race for which started off with the gallons of head of rows of the yellow square.

Go'mez Marchante has undergone in the last days an aggressive bud of ulcerosa colitis within the inflammatory disease intestinal chronicle that has been suffering for three years. One is an affection frequents that he produces the inflammation of the mucosa of the colon and that causes bled (rectoragia) and that is pronounced by buds.

The last one happened to him to Go'mez Marchante in the final days from the recent Return to Switzerland, which excessively scared to the equipment and the own runner, who already has put themselves into the hands of specialists.

The doctors, besides to duplicate their medication, have anticipated new tests for the next Wednesday, among them a colonoscopia and tests of nuclear medicine at level of cellular markers with the purpose of having totally controlled the disease of the cyclist.

If the greater analyses did not keep awake the evils, the equipment and the runner hope that their recovery is total for the dispute of the Return. The substitute of the Madrilenian runner in the Tour of France 2007 will be David Gorge, that appeared like first reserve before any contingency in the previous days to the race.

The Gravity Assisted Flyers

by Clydesdale on Jun 29, 2007 9:28 AM EDT up reply actions

SDV

http://www.saunierduvalteam.com/cyclingteam/newsDetailN.jsp?idnews=1183111733590

by lucybears on Jun 29, 2007 9:47 AM EDT up reply actions

Ouch

Ulcerative colitis is pretty terrible. Better than the alternative (Crohn's), but it's still gonna take a big surgery. One of my friends was out of commission for 2 months after her UC surgery.

by BDBrian on Jun 29, 2007 11:02 AM EDT up reply actions

or

he doesn't want to sign

Gómez Marchante: «La declaración antidopaje de la UCI está rozando el absurdo»
http://www.esciclismo.com/ampliada.asp?Id=4857

by lucybears on Jun 29, 2007 11:20 AM EDT up reply actions

Uhh

That kind of sickness, one usually doesn't lie about.

by BDBrian on Jun 29, 2007 1:42 PM EDT up reply actions

It also looks as though David Arroyo will be

replacing Joaquin Rodriguez.

From Velo-club.net:

Joaquin Rodriguez ne participera pas au Tour de France "Euzebio Unzue m'a appelé cet après-midi pour me le confirmer" a déclaré Rodriguez. Selon l'Espagnol, la direction de l'équipe lui a préféré David Arroyo pour épauler Valverde et Pereiro en montagne.

Si la place de Arroyo ne ne discute pas, on est étonné de l'absence de Joaquin Rodriguez qui aurait pu être précieux en montagne.

The Gravity Assisted Flyers

by Clydesdale on Jun 28, 2007 3:44 PM EDT reply actions

It's a torrent!

I guess this is the result of years of the code of silence, and the "it's not my job" to police the peleton mentality.

I feel a little sorry for guys who are wrongly accused. But not too much, they are reaping years of complicity in the lies.

-K-

by KevinK on Jun 28, 2007 3:58 PM EDT reply actions

Couldn't agree with you more Kevin. I've been

on my soapbox talking about riders' complicity for a while. As nice as a guy as a certain known pro rider who once contributed here seems to be, his comments about it not being his job to turn other riders in (last year when Puerto first reared its ugly head) were disturbing and indicative of how institutionalized and tacitly accepted the problem is/was.

by the way, my guess: "drugs for oil" = drugs for profit/riches/winnings?

by Scott. on Jun 28, 2007 4:31 PM EDT up reply actions

Maybe

But it reminds me of politics, which causes a wave of nausea.

Got a problem? Va fa Napoli!

by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 28, 2007 5:14 PM EDT up reply actions

Hear, hear...

Enough of the lame claim that it's "Not my Job".

Well one way or the other it is their job. If not explicitly, then implicitly. If the public looses faith in the sport then there must be a crackdown to restore the perceived value. Even those that are wrongly accused will get caught in his pinch. Without the crackdown the sponsors flee with the public and the team bosses finally suffer.

America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, badass speed. -Eleanor Roosevelt

by ELVISGOAT on Jun 28, 2007 6:50 PM EDT up reply actions

according to DP on monday

Jaksche is supposedly going to confess all. Rumor says he is selling his confession to the highest media bidder. speculation abounds on who else he might implicate, most notably certain other OP stars and possible even Riis? who knows what will happen. could get mighty ugly. i hate to say it but i will be happy if he takes down some of the guilty, smug, holier-than-thou guys who go around talking about how tranquil they are, while they are meanwhile on tape recordings talking with their doctor about how to dope!!

also UCI ethics codes says "UCI ProTeams represented by the new group created out of the AIGCP (association of professional cycling teams) are now committed to suspending the whole of their activities in case of two positive anti-doping results and/or abnormal blood controls over a period of 12 months." so Astana could be out of the Tour if this rule is for real. Kessler plus Mazzoleni is 2.

also Austin Murphy has written a great pre-Tour review of the state of cycling. quite a good read if you have a strong stomach.

C.F.A.

by Lili on Jun 28, 2007 7:13 PM EDT reply actions

Jaksche

Remember, his last team was Liberty Seguros. So who can he dish on?

Got a problem? Va fa Napoli!

by Chris Fontecchio on Jun 28, 2007 7:25 PM EDT up reply actions

Duh

Vino, Vino, Vino. And Kashechkin.

Davis? Contador? Paulinho? They've been cleared. I'm pretty sure those 3 aren't doped (and if they are, there's no way in hell Disco's getting a new sponsor). On the other hand, if he has dirt on the big name, he'll get a lot of cash.

by BDBrian on Jun 28, 2007 7:29 PM EDT up reply actions

Saiz, Saiz, Saiz

I'd like to see him go after the system--I don't care so much about the riders anymore.

It's like rounding up the street level drug dealers and users. Or, like just pulling the tops of bermuda grass. If you don't go for the root system, you don't get rid of the problem.

Call me a radical. (A little etymology joke . . .)

by R Mc on Jun 28, 2007 8:51 PM EDT up reply actions

I think I got it

radix = root, right?

by ghisallo on Jun 28, 2007 10:54 PM EDT up reply actions

the riders don't concern me too much either

until they go after the team structures then it's just band-aids and talk...

America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, badass speed. -Eleanor Roosevelt

by ELVISGOAT on Jun 29, 2007 9:19 AM EDT up reply actions

(nodding)

Riders have been taking the heat while management gets to yell "J'acuse!" a lot and form committees on fair play. Start taking the big boys down hard and the sport will stand a better long term chance of cleaning up.

"I don't know too many monkeys who could take apart a fuel injector."

by Drew on Jun 29, 2007 9:41 AM EDT up reply actions

If by a strong stomach you mean

the same old tired information about LA and FL, yeah I have to agree with you. You have to have one to read all the innuendos thrown about again.

The last paragraph was good though.

by bethie on Jun 28, 2007 8:37 PM EDT up reply actions

the rumors are tired stuff

for sure, even if most/many of them are true.

Is that reporting, though? I don't think so. It's basically the twin of the ass kissing "journalism" of Bicycling. I'm reading the Walsh book now--no sources are cited, any one of us could have stitched the same old rumors into a book.

I don't think there's much of a gotcha quality to the doping story in cycling anymore. I think the history of cycling needs to be reinterpreted. Taking LA "down" is the holy grail of the doping reporters. But really, there's already enough information out there to draw the conclusion that he juiced. But who cares? I don't anymore.

The image of the sport and the reality are two completely different things. The core problem is that "doctors" merged into the fabric of the teams a long time ago. How and why that happened is a story that hasn't been told. Why does a supremely healthy male athelete need a doctor, except for the occasional check-up or bike fitting?

If the reports of Walsh are to be believed, there are oodles of these doping doctors, soigneurs, complicit DS's etc... Rooting those fellows out will be tough; They really are pro cycling.

-K-

by KevinK on Jun 29, 2007 10:25 AM EDT up reply actions

UCI

anti-doping representative Anne Gripper told German daily newspaper Handelsblatt: "It's rather likely that Astana will be excluded from the Tour. Nevertheless we have to wait for what Kessler's B probe might reveil," said the Australian.

by lucybears on Jun 29, 2007 3:50 AM EDT reply actions

Oil for Drugs

Another article on this suspension (cyclingnews?) mentioned that the derivation for the "Oil for Drugs" police code-name is the suspicion that the cyclists were getting the drugs from the masseurs, and trading massage oil for it.

--kirby

by kirbyfiles on Jun 29, 2007 10:18 AM EDT reply actions