Franco Pellizotti cleared to race

[swampy1970]

Italian to claim damages from the UCI

Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) has been cleared of doping charges by the Italian national anti-doping court (TNA), “because there aren’t enough elements to prove the cyclist guilty of blood manipulation”, stated the release by the Italian justice.
Pellizotti was suspended by the UCI on May 3rd after irregular values were detected in his biological passport. He missed the Giro d’Italia and was replaced in the Liquigas-Doimo line-up by Vincenzo Nibali, who then skipped the Tour de France but went on to win the Vuelta a Espana.

“I’m very satisfied with this outcome and it couldn’t be any different than my name being cleared”, said the winner of the mountains classification in the 2009 Tour de France following the hearing by the TNA. “But it has ruined my whole season and I’ll ask the UCI to pay for the damages.”

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/franco-pellizotti-cleared-to-race

 

[Andrija]

From competitive point of view it's very good news. Pellizotti on road means that Giro will get one more serious contender and Tour will surely get a rider from Liquigas targeting primarily Yellow jersey, with strong enough support to challenge Schlecks.

What's not so good is that passport system is showing weaknesses. UCI suspected and didn't prove suspicion, whether because of reliability of the method or because riders found the way to outfox them it's irrelevant, passports aren't that reliable but that didn't stop UCI to destroy season to riders. As I wrote once - it's not control anymore, it's hunt. Not the most safe one... Closed season isn't respected.
With full respect of Pelliotti's innocence, it's not news that riders and their doctors know how to manipulate with blood in order to keep values inside range defined in passports.

 

[pennstater]

Originally Posted by swampy1970 .

Italian to claim damages from the UCI

Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) has been cleared of doping charges by the Italian national anti-doping court (TNA), “because there aren’t enough elements to prove the cyclist guilty of blood manipulation”, stated the release by the Italian justice.
Pellizotti was suspended by the UCI on May 3rd after irregular values were detected in his biological passport. He missed the Giro d’Italia and was replaced in the Liquigas-Doimo line-up by Vincenzo Nibali, who then skipped the Tour de France but went on to win the Vuelta a Espana.

“I’m very satisfied with this outcome and it couldn’t be any different than my name being cleared”, said the winner of the mountains classification in the 2009 Tour de France following the hearing by the TNA. “But it has ruined my whole season and I’ll ask the UCI to pay for the damages.”

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/franco-pellizotti-cleared-to-race

Looks like it isn't quite over for Pellizotti, as the UCI is aiming to appeal the TNA decision, but this will probably amount to nothing. I agree with Andrija that this is a type of rider that can highten the excitement of races like the Giro and Tour, but this is a pretty big hit for the blood passport project.

With him [Pellizotti] back in the line up, are Liquigas the best team? For stage races I can't see a better team out there. They have three riders that can win/challenge for the overall and podium positions. If Contador doesn't race and is suspended I could see Liquigas winning all three GTs depending on their ambitions. Schleck or contador, if racing, will most likely win the Tour but Liquigas has a three-headed-beast.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-could-appeal-pellizotti-case

 

[slovakguy]

Originally Posted by pennstater .




Looks like it isn't quite over for Pellizotti, as the UCI is aiming to appeal the TNA decision, but this will probably amount to nothing. I agree with Andrija that this is a type of rider that can highten the excitement of races like the Giro and Tour, but this is a pretty big hit for the blood passport project.

With him [Pellizotti] back in the line up, are Liquigas the best team? For stage races I can't see a better team out there. They have three riders that can win/challenge for the overall and podium positions. If Contador doesn't race and is suspended I could see Liquigas winning all three GTs depending on their ambitions. Schleck or contador, if racing, will most likely win the Tour but Liquigas has a three-headed-beast.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-could-appeal-pellizotti-case

i can see liqui repeating the giro/vuelta double (& although they will be a marked team, they have the stable to overcome the repeated attacks) but that tour nut will be a very difficult for them to crack. the usual suspects all seem to have arrived at the conclusion that the giro/tour schedule is not a winning one for tour dreams, so the competition should be a touch stronger for 2011. pushed into a corner on this issue, i'd have to agree that liqui are the frontrunners to pull off the sweep.

 

[pennstater]

Originally Posted by slovakguy .




i can see liqui repeating the giro/vuelta double (& although they will be a marked team, they have the stable to overcome the repeated attacks) but that tour nut will be a very difficult for them to crack. the usual suspects all seem to have arrived at the conclusion that the giro/tour schedule is not a winning one for tour dreams, so the competition should be a touch stronger for 2011. pushed into a corner on this issue, i'd have to agree that liqui are the frontrunners to pull off the sweep.

Agreed, tour will be a tough one. But if Contador doesn't race, I can see Schleck getting beat by the likes of Nibali or Pelo, as well as a handfull of others. If Contador does race, I don't think he will let what happened this past year happen again. I still think he is by far the most talented rider in the pelaton and the only thing that will hold him back is what happens off the road.

 

[ilpirata]

He is also suing UCI for damages. I agree with you all that the blood passport system has taken a hit here. But also Pellizotti has taken personally a bigger hit. Having watched him over the years I suspect he may be innocent as he insists. His performances have often been very good but never super. His improvements in recent years may well be due to the squeeze put on super doping, as the rest of the field comes back to him a bit. On the other hand I am somewhat suspect of Basso's giro performance last year.

 

[Andrija]

Originally Posted by ilpirata .

He is also suing UCI for damages. I agree with you all that the blood passport system has taken a hit here. But also Pellizotti has taken personally a bigger hit. Having watched him over the years I suspect he may be innocent as he insists. His performances have often been very good but never super. His improvements in recent years may well be due to the squeeze put on super doping, as the rest of the field comes back to him a bit. On the other hand I am somewhat suspect of Basso's giro performance last year.

I agree with you about Pellizotti's and Basso's performances.
Pellizotti's improvement resembles on Di Luca's. He could stay here and there with top climbers and suddenly he can even beat them and say he's targeting mountainous Giro. He should be very careful with that UCI suit. UCI indicated they could go to CAS with his case. Like they're sending him a message - you've got away, be happy with just one season off, don't be trying your luck.
Basso's performance was very similar to 2006 edition, but in comparison with Pellizotti he always was a climber and mountains always were his terrain.

 

[limerickman]

Basso was climbing like Pantani just before he got busted and Franco was starting to resemble Ivan just before he too got busted.

OK he's served his time and we have to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Seeing Franco and the likes of Vino back is terribly disheartening.

No wonder this section of the forum is dying.
It used to be a lot more busy but I think a lot of cycling fans have switched off from following the professional road racing.

 

[swampy1970]

Originally Posted by limerickman .

Basso was climbing like Pantani just before he got busted and Franco was starting to resemble Ivan just before he too got busted.

OK he's served his time and we have to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Seeing Franco and the likes of Vino back is terribly disheartening.

No wonder this section of the forum is dying.
It used to be a lot more busy but I think a lot of cycling fans have switched off from following the professional road racing.

Vino - he served his time and if he screws up again he's out. Franco - they proved nothing... suspected, yes, proved, no.

And what has doping and the like got to do with cycling fans switching off from pro road racing? I think more people cycling when more riders were doped upto the eyeballs.

 

[limerickman]

Originally Posted by swampy1970 .



Quote: Originally Posted by limerickman .

Basso was climbing like Pantani just before he got busted and Franco was starting to resemble Ivan just before he too got busted.

OK he's served his time and we have to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Seeing Franco and the likes of Vino back is terribly disheartening.

No wonder this section of the forum is dying.
It used to be a lot more busy but I think a lot of cycling fans have switched off from following the professional road racing.

Vino - he served his time and if he screws up again he's out. Franco - they proved nothing... suspected, yes, proved, no.

And what has doping and the like got to do with cycling fans switching off from pro road racing? I think more people cycling when more riders were doped upto the eyeballs.


I think a lot of followers of the professional scene have given up following the professional scene because the upper echelons of the sport
appear to be riddled with riders doping.
Just my opinion for what it may be worth.

Fair point about the contrast between the Vino case and Francos case.

 

[ilpirata]

I am in agreement with Swampy. I admit that I do tend to give the benifit of the doubt to riders that haven't been found positive. Pellizotti for instance is a light rider who you could expect would be a good climber, similar in build to Andy Schleck or Alberto Contador. Over recent years he could hang with top riders on a tough mountain stage one day, and drop a minute and a half the next day. In other words, he shows a human weekness that you might not see from a rider having ehem 'top shelf' preparation and support. Can someone just using altitude training compete with someone using advanced autologous methods? I don't know, but I doubt it. Again, Basso blowing people away at last years giro, seemed to me somewhat unnatural.

 

[roadhouse]

All fine and good but is the UCI going to go back and undo what they did to Landis seeing as he proved beyond any and all reasonable doubt that the UCI royally screwed up his tests? Granted he did dope and for that I'm glad he's out, but still, the point is UCI messed up and legally shouldn't have been able to derive a positive due to so many variables. The metal handles on the machines after two years in the lab that should have been taken off as the metal handles interfere with the magnetic ability to test and result properly is what gets me the most from his case, the instructions which Floyd found ON THE MACHINE ITSELF state to remove them before use as it will mess with the results. That and the fact that test A to test B differed so greatly and that in itself should have made his tests inconclusive. Probably because they removed the handles for test B.

I wonder how many others they've messed up on due to similar instances?

 

[roadhouse]

Plain and simple, it's a nice thought to be able to be to decipher whom uses PED's but at the end of the day, all it would really take is a simple polygraph (lie detector test), not under educated and understaffed laboratories (whom don't even keep the same protocol from one lab to another so if a test was found to be positive in Switzerland and reported to the UCI, following a different protocol of a lab UCI uses in Australia, that same test would come out negative), money mongering ill-fated and as we all now know (or at least I've concluded) due to Lance's case, bribed pattsies.

Not interested in anything the UCI has to offer any longer. Hell, not interested in ANY governing sports authority in any way.