Big news day, if only further developments on known stories...
- ASO met with teams yesterday to argue against including Operacion Puerto-labeled riders in future races. CN reported that ASO were putting on a full-court-press for suspensions, but the issue was shelved until after Liege.
- Along similar lines, Ettorio Torri, the prosecutor in Ivan Basso's case, has asked Basso to provide a DNA sample, and Torri intends to go to Madrid to compare such a sample to the alleged "Birillo" blood bags. The report also says Italian authorities have already taken some samples from these bags, which seems contradictory, but whatever. Basso has his lawyer out there crying "procedural foul," which undoubtedly is draining away whatever sympathy there may be for the reigning Giro champ.
Update [2007-4-25 22:59:34 by chris]: From CN: Basso "will not refuse" to provide a DNA sample, his lawyer says. Basso cried on Tuesday when he heard the news, according to his lawyer Massimo Martelli. "I have never seen Ivan like this, he is doing very poorly." He indicated that Basso would not refuse to supply the DNA sample.
- As for L'Affaire Landis, the Chetenay-Mabry lab responded to the cries of unfairness by simply stating that they wouldn't let Landis' lawyer in for the testing without USADA's person also being present. So USADA appears to have pulled a fast one on Floyd by not showing up.
- On a non-doping note, Unibet won a verdict against ASO at the EU in their case to race under their own name. A court in Belgium ruled that under European law the gambling excuse was not a valid one for excluding Unibet from competition.
- However, Pat McQuaid's more buffoonish challenge on Unibet's behalf was summarily rejected: a different court ruled that the detente agreement from March was as obviously non-binding as any halfwit could have already concluded, and ASO had no obligation under the detente to include Unibet.