Ricco admits doping !!!!!! Bigger man than Landis....



whiteboytrash

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http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2008-07-30_130202930.html



ANSA) - Rome, July 30 - Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco' on Wednesday admitted to taking EPO in the run-up to the recent Tour de France, where he tested positive for the substance and was thrown off the race.

Ricco', 24, told Italian anti-doping authorities that he decided on his own to take the banned blood-booster and said no one else was involved.

''It was my mistake, mine alone. I still think about the team and I'm sorry if guys lost their jobs because of me''.

The team's sponsor, French heating appliance giant Saunier Duval, pulled out of cycling after the case. Ricco', who had won two stages with mountain breakaways, was ejected from the Tour at the start of the 12th stage and briefly detained under France's new anti-doping laws.

French authorities said traces of a 'third generation' of EPO called 'Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator' (CERA) were found in his blood after the Tour's first time trial - the same substance also found in three Spanish riders.

Ricco' faces a two-year ban from the Italian Olympic Committee and could face criminal charges in France.

After finishing second in the Giro d'Italia and his feats in the Tour Ricco' was being tipped as a potential heir to Italian cycling's greatest recent climber, Marco Pantani.

Some fans had already started calling him 'the Pirate', the nickname of the bandana-clad Pantani who did the Giro-Tour double in 1998 before doping woes and cocaine use led to his death from a cocaine overdose in 2004.

The Italian cycling world was shocked by the news of Ricco's positive test.

The Italian Association of Professional Riders said riders like Ricco' ''jeopardise the image of the sport and the interests of the majority of riders committed to the fight against the doping mafia''.

The president of the International Cycling Union, Pat McQuaid, called the case ''absolutely shocking''.

The head of the Italian Olympic Committee's Sports Medicine Institute, Antonio Dal Monte, said the effects of CERA ''could be more dramatic'' than EPO, which strains the heart and carries a high risk of thrombosis.

Ricco's case was the latest doping-related blow to cycling after 2006 Tour winner Floyd Landis was stripped of his title, the 2007 winner Ivan Basso was banned for two years and last year's favourites Alexandre Vinokourov and Michael Rasmussen were expelled from the race.

Other top riders to be hit by doping allegations include Jan Ullrich, winner of the 1997 Tour, and Danilo Di Luca, winner of the 2007 Giro d'Italia.

Retired cycling star and current team manager Bjarne Riis last year admitted he used EPO in 1996, when he won the Tour.

Sprint star Erik Zabel has also admitted using it. Lance Armstrong not.
 
"After the Giro, I had no plans to go to the Tour, and that is why I have taken the substance," Riccò said. "I made a mistake of youth."

Kids!
 
After his initial response of denial I wonder has he actually had a change of heart or have his advisers told him that he will have difficulty getting another team if he doesn't pretend to show remorse (a la Basso)?

Or does he just realise that this is the quickest way to get back to racing? Denials and appeals only make it a long drawn out process when you're guilty as charged.

He's taking control of the story. He's writing it to read that he only doped because he hadn't trained properly for the Tour. That implies his Giro stages and podium were the result of training and not CERA assisted. Are those Giro samples still stored somewhere, could they be retrospectively tested?
 
I'm confused by his quote: "After the Giro, I had no plans to go to the Tour, and that is why I have taken the substance," Riccò said. "I made a mistake of youth."


Is he saying his youthful mistake was in the timing of when he took it, or that he took it at all?

Also, his admission is really premature. He cut short about 1000 posts that would have appeared on DP talking about the unreliability of the test, the French conspiracy, and violation of riders' privacy rights.
 
damned I had hope that he would confess all and bring down Alberto 'I was at the beach, I went to the dentist, I was at 80%...' Contador who beat him at the Giro.

A girl can dream.
 
kennf said:
I'm confused by his quote: "After the Giro, I had no plans to go to the Tour, and that is why I have taken the substance," Riccò said. "I made a mistake of youth."


Is he saying his youthful mistake was in the timing of when he took it, or that he took it at all?
/QUOTE]
Good question
I am understanding that perhaps he was using the substance for high level training, and perhaps did not get off in time to be clear at testing, due to his last minute decision to go to the tour. But only he knows the truth.
 
kennf said:
Also, his admission is really premature. He cut short about 1000 posts that would have appeared on DP talking about the unreliability of the test, the French conspiracy, and violation of riders' privacy rights.
French conspiracy is Bush creation... to have the crowd under his willing...

In cycling, only American riders or teams could be the target of French conspiracy.
 
kennf said:
I'm confused by his quote: "After the Giro, I had no plans to go to the Tour, and that is why I have taken the substance," Riccò said. "I made a mistake of youth."

Is he saying his youthful mistake was in the timing of when he took it, or that he took it at all?
He is pulling a Basso and admitting to the least that is possible given the evidence. He is saying he doped after the Giro but not during the Giro. Maybe he will make a statement that all his victories (save those in the 2008 TdF) were clean.
 
That's funny..........


When I read your post, the last sentence was out of place and didn't follow the article. I checked with the link............what is the point?

Lance is a doper of epic proportions, but why add some blurb to someone's article?

Strange, very strange.
 
So, Landis is a dirty cheat who went down in flames protesting his innocence.

Ricco is a sniveling milquetoast who confessed only after being cornered - his remorse was coerced, not offered voluntarily.

I don't see the point in labeling either of them a "bigger" man, but we can certainly debate whether they are men to begin with.
 
I'm more concerned about his seemingly BS confession that he was clean at the Giro and took the stuff before the TdF. We have heard from indirect sources that Ricco use to brag about being a doper when he was 16. This line about only doping a few weeks before the TdF seems to be something inserted to protect the Giro and the UCI. To defend the question "Why the F#$@ didn't he test positive at the Giro?'. How long before the TdF was it before he was inserted by S-D? I thought it was only weeks. What a load of BS.

This CERA had been out for a while. The reason he got caught was because it was supposed to be undetectable. No way he wasn't using it at the Giro. Why wouldn't he? It was supposed to be undetectable. Didn't he have enough money to afford it?
 
Crankyfeet said:
This CERA had been out for a while. The reason he got caught was because it was supposed to be undetectable. No way he wasn't using it at the Giro. Why wouldn't he? It was supposed to be undetectable. Didn't he have enough money to afford it?
Good point. I think the most pathetic of all dopers are those who have no way out but to tearfully confess -- and while the tears are still flowing they start lying again. "I'm sorry. I cheated. But just that one time when you caught me." Imagine the type of moral gymnastics it takes to rationalize a confession made to set up another lie.
 
IH8LANCE said:
Good point. I think the most pathetic of all dopers are those who have no way out but to tearfully confess -- and while the tears are still flowing they start lying again. "I'm sorry. I cheated. But just that one time when you caught me." Imagine the type of moral gymnastics it takes to rationalize a confession made to set up another lie.
I think Ricco has had the same phone call from McQuaid that Landis got. You know... the one where Pat said "You're a good guy Floyd... but just take the rap and serve your time". Whereas Floyd went "Up yours!!".... Ricco has gone "Okay...what should I say in the media?".... And Pat's gone... "Well... say you're sorry... but tell them that you only started taking it after the Giro.... we don't want people to think that our tests are ****...or that we have corruptly hidden your guilt". Then Ricco probably said... "But people aren't stupid.... they will work out that if I thought it was undetectable... then I would have been using it at the Giro".... and Pat probably said.... "No...people will believe anything you tell them... especially if you sound like you're confessing.... you should hear the stuff we've said that they've believed".
 
Crankyfeet said:
I think Ricco has had the same phone call from McQuaid that Landis got. You know... the one where Pat said "You're a good guy Floyd... but just take the rap and serve your time". Whereas Floyd went "Up yours!!".... Ricco has gone "Okay...what should I say in the media?".... And Pat's gone... "Well... say you're sorry... but tell them that you only started taking it after the Giro.... we don't want people to think that our tests are ****...or that we have corruptly hidden your guilt". Then Ricco probably said... "But people aren't stupid.... they will work out that if I thought it was undetectable... then I would have been using it at the Giro".... and Pat probably said.... "No...people will believe anything you tell them... especially if you sound like you're confessing.... you should here the stuff we've said that they've believed".
+1 Cranky
 
Crankyfeet said:
I think Ricco has had the same phone call from McQuaid that Landis got. You know... the one where Pat said "You're a good guy Floyd... but just take the rap and serve your time". Whereas Floyd went "Up yours!!".... Ricco has gone "Okay...what should I say in the media?".... And Pat's gone... "Well... say you're sorry... but tell them that you only started taking it after the Giro.... we don't want people to think that our tests are ****...or that we have corruptly hidden your guilt". Then Ricco probably said... "But people aren't stupid.... they will work out that if I thought it was undetectable... then I would have been using it at the Giro".... and Pat probably said.... "No...people will believe anything you tell them... especially if you sound like you're confessing.... you should hear the stuff we've said that they've believed".

Landis is still a douchebag. If he really had wanted to take down the establishment, all he had to do was tell the truth. He didn't, he followed the French are jealous/incompetent card that Armstrong started
 
Crankyfeet said:
I think Ricco has had the same phone call from McQuaid that Landis got. You know... the one where Pat said "You're a good guy Floyd... but just take the rap and serve your time". Whereas Floyd went "Up yours!!".... Ricco has gone "Okay...what should I say in the media?".... And Pat's gone... "Well... say you're sorry... but tell them that you only started taking it after the Giro.... we don't want people to think that our tests are ****...or that we have corruptly hidden your guilt". Then Ricco probably said... "But people aren't stupid.... they will work out that if I thought it was undetectable... then I would have been using it at the Giro".... and Pat probably said.... "No...people will believe anything you tell them... especially if you sound like you're confessing.... you should hear the stuff we've said that they've believed".
great post...
 
earth_dweller said:
Landis is still a douchebag. If he really had wanted to take down the establishment, all he had to do was tell the truth. He didn't, he followed the French are jealous/incompetent card that Armstrong started
You had me at "Landis is still a douchebag"...
 
earth_dweller said:
Landis is still a douchebag
You missed my point if you thought my post had anything to do with Landis being better than Ricco. I inserted Landis only because we found out in his book that McQuaid gave him a phone call that advised him what to do. I used that precedent to imagine Ricco getting a similar call. After all... Ricco being just 24 will still be young when he comes out of suspension.
 
earth_dweller said:
Landis is still a douchebag. If he really had wanted to take down the establishment, all he had to do was tell the truth. He didn't, he followed the French are jealous/incompetent card that Armstrong started
Well, I still say he did because it worked for Armstrong...and that was the advice he was given. Then once you go down that path you can't really turn back.

Ricco isn't a bigger man than Landis, and Landis isn't worse IMO, he's in a different climate than Landis...this is about damage control.