Frigo....

dasnootz

Did not start today, as his wife was caught at the French/Italian border with EPO.

Bjørn P.Dal

Again confirming riders can easily use epo and other drugs without the tests showing squat.

Dead Star

eeexacctly. where's Flyer!?

Bjørn P.Dal

To bad for flyer Frigo wont make he's list longer as he's already on it.
On eurosport they said Frigo had been using EPO since 1996, I didnt catch the source of that though..

cheapie

i don't understand. maybe it's because i'm not in the sport as a rider but why would you risk taking it or having your wife carry it in such a marquee event?

Eldrack

He's probably only been tested once on this tour, at the beginning. The testers go after people like LA when they do random control so Frigo probably just kept of until the start test then dosed up afterwards. Cheating Git.

Powerful Pete

I guess the idea is to have your wife bring it is easier than stashing the stuff on the team bus... that might be a bit too obvious.

It is clear that they must have had their eye on him though - if you have seen the number of cars coming and going at the French-Italian border, something tells me that she wasn't just picked up on the basis of a lucky traffic stop...

Hope that this is not the start of another 'Festina' affair... right when Fassa is looking desperately for a new prime sponsor for next year.

Oh well, caught a second time. Something tells me Frigo is in for a career change.

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wolfix

Kirchen just dropped out......What is happening to Fassa???? Actually he was not "caught" the 1st time with PED's, but with saline solution he thought was PED's...... Those damn drug dealers.

Powerful Pete

That was why I mentioned a new Festina affair. I sincerely hope that they will not catch half the Fassa team or something like that.

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Ted B

Let's consider the practical side of it for a moment. In the case of EPO, if you're not exceeding the legal hematocrit threshold (and therefore not outside of legal limits), then how much of an advantage are you really getting? Obviously, it didn't convert him into a sudden contender.

__________________
Originally Posted by Flyer:
It is a matter of reading comprehension that you challenged by.

dasnootz

I'm assuming that it was over the legal hematocrit threshold... as he was arrested this morning.... according to OLN.

Ted B

I don't think so. I think his wife was caught at the border with EPO in her car.

__________________
Originally Posted by Flyer:
It is a matter of reading comprehension that you challenged by.

Powerful Pete

Yes, to my knowledge there has been no discussion of Frigo's hematocrit. I really think that what we are looking at is the French police putting him in garde a vue so that he cannot pull a Rumsas and leave the wife in jail.

Something tells me that driving industrial quantities of EPO and other such stuff across an international border is not exactly legal...

Have you guys seen what Ferretti has said about Frigo? Something along the lines of... "whatever the jail term, it is not long enough..." and "... he should not even be allowed to spectate on the roads by a professional race..."

Oh well, wonder who recruited him.

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dasnootz

Phil definately said at the begining of the race today that Frigo's wife had been arrested at the border and that Frigo was taken in by police prior to today's start...

Here's a velonews article stating that he's being questioned and "French police will be reluctant to let him go without pressing charges as they are still trying to extradite Lithuanian rider Raimondas Rumsas from Italy on doping charges relating to the 2002 Tour de France, where he finished third."

Frigo questioned as wife found with banned drugs
By Agence France Presse
This report filed July 13, 2005
Italian Tour de France rider Dario Frigo was being questioned by police on Wednesday after customs officers found banned drugs in his wife's car.

His wife, who was stopped on the motorway on Tuesday with what was understood to be about 10 doses of the endurance-boosting drug EPO (erythropoietin), was also being held.

The 31-year-old Fassa Bortolo rider was lying 52nd in the Tour.

The former Paris-Nice and Romandy Tour winner is no stranger to doping scandals, having been forced to pull out of the 2001 Giro d'Italia when Italian police found drugs in his hotel room when he was lying second.

French police will be reluctant to let him go without pressing charges as they are still trying to extradite Lithuanian rider Raimondas Rumsas from Italy on doping charges relating to the 2002 Tour de France, where he finished third.

Afterward, French custom officers arrested Rumsas' wife with drugs in her car.

Rumsas, who lives in Italy, has not been back to France since then and was recently held briefly on a European arrest warrant in Florence as French authorities tried to get him extradited to face a court hearing scheduled for November.

Frigo was the second rider implicated during this year's Tour. Russia's Yevgeni Petrov was thrown out of the Tour on Tuesday after failing a blood test while sitting 45th overall.

Fassa Bortolo sporting director Bruno Cenghialta insisted the team had nothing to do with the drugs find.

"We were the ones who told the police she (Frigo's wife) had come to the hotel," he said. "I hadn't been told she would be coming. He's the one who has got to come up with the answers. We're furious."

Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc welcomed the police intervention and said if found guilty Frigo had no place in cycling.

"The police play an important role in the war on drugs," he said. "If the allegations are founded, it makes him a habitual offender. He's one of that generation of riders who should disappear as quickly as possible to make way for young riders who respect the rules and ethics of the sport."

Deputy director Christian Prudhomme, who takes over from Leblanc next year, insisted it was an isolated case.

"All we ask for is for drug cheats to be caught," he added.

Doping teams have tested 129 riders since the Tour started 12 days ago.