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08-06.-2005, 01:21 AM
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#1 |
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 13
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The clients of Michele Ferrari
The Italian court has found Michele Ferrari guilty of doping offenses. Of course his clients have nothing to do with it: they gave him lots of money for a box of vitamin C. It's incredible that the UCI isn't investigating this.
His clients: -Lance Armstrong: 6xtour -Abraham Olano: vuelta -Toni Rominger: 3x vuelta, giro -Evgeni Berzin: giro -Bjarne Riis: tour -Pavel Tonkov: giro -Ivan Gotti: 2x giro -Paolo Savoldelli: 2x giro -Mario Cipollini -Claudio Chiappucci -Filippo Simeoni: the only one who confessed, the only one sanctioned. Comparison with track and field: -Marion Jones denies, doesn't get a sanction. -Kelli White confesses, gets the toughest sanction in sports history: a ban of five and a half years and about 700.000 dollars to pay. Conclusion: never confess, just hire a good lawyer. |
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08-06.-2005, 01:49 AM
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#2 | |
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,125
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Re: The clients of Michele Ferrari
Funny that youre name is pantani lives.......is it youre hero!? THAT was a big doper!!!
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08-06.-2005, 02:10 AM
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#3 |
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 247
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Re: The clients of Michele Ferrari
I think your namesake disproves your theory. He denied the whole way but still got sanctioned, though he did win most of his cases. The list of clients does make it pretty clear why Pantani was so adamant he was being singled out in 99. And then there's Casagrande whose string of short suspensions were all the result of what seemed to be a "yeah, so what?" defense.
I don't really find anything wrong with what Ferrari did. He did keep them from harming themselves with drugs and I don't find that ethically objectionable, and the evidence that he encouraged the use or provided the drugs was extremely thin. |
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08-06.-2005, 03:47 AM
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#6 | |
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,125
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Re: The clients of Michele Ferrari
Hehe ofcourse flyer there are way more........I don't know if pantani doped more then the others, but the fact is he was a big doper.......What the word 'BIG' (which products, how many times, frequency etc) means nobody knows!
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10-06.-2005, 03:26 AM
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#8 |
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 247
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Re: The clients of Michele Ferrari
I don't think Pantani was any bigger doper than anyone else with performance enhancing drugs, but he was world class with cocaine. 10 times the lethal dose in his blood stream at autopsy. I guess they were being nice to his family when they ruled out suicide, but that level takes some doing.
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10-06.-2005, 06:02 AM
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#10 | |
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 316
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Re: The clients of Michele Ferrari
You are only talking about your perception, because Pantani was never found guilty of doping. If you check my topic on the "mythical one gone a year" you will find some discussion on the reasons Pantani was singled out for destruction by Italian mafia with the support of Italian cycling federation, the giudicial system and Italian media. He served suspensions many times awaiting tribunals, but the tribunals never produced real evidence of doping. His results really cannot be considered as advanced by doping, he was outclimbing everyone from amateur ranks to his first days in the peleton. He is built light as a climber would be. Mr. Armstrong on the other hand, suddenly became a world class climber after years as a mediocre at best climber. If everyone started with the same arms (and you know what I mean by arms) Pantani had no rivals. He knew he could only benefit by a clean sport and fought for it.
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10-06.-2005, 06:54 AM
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#12 | |
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,125
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Re: The clients of Michele Ferrari
Huh it is widely known (also in the cycling world) that Pantani was a doper..........so my perception is based on story's that I read/watch and from forums....
Btw I thought he was kicked out of the giro in 99 on the last stage......(he probably had some excuse....) Quote:
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10-06.-2005, 11:23 AM
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#14 | |
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 316
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Re: The clients of Michele Ferrari
Everyone is entitled to an opinion, in fact with all the garbage heaped on Pantani over the years i am never surprised to hear views such as yours.
In regards to the hematocrit, it is "TOTAL FABRICATION" as I will explain: The events of June5,1999 (Madonna di Campiglio) were the catalyst in the downward spiral for the pirate. I want to impress on you however, that to get to the truth about whether or not there was a conspiracy to bring down Pantani, you can not look to the Italian media for much help. Most of the journalists are told what to say, and only a few have supported Marco Pantani through his dark times. I truly wish someone would go those steps necessary to get at the truth. But one thing for sure is that the mainstream media in Italy had more than a small part in destroying the pirate. In fact to this day they still defame him with every sort of calumny. I will touch on this as consisely as possible. After years of saying how Marco had been pumping himself with epo and how even his greatest victories were put into question. The procurator who had persecuted Marco with allegations of sporting fraud had asked for extra information from the autopsy convinced that there would be irrefuteable evidence of doping. However the performing doctor (Dr. Fortuni) gave the following statement in a live interview “After all statements over the years that had been written about Pantani and doping, I had expected to see evidence of bone marrow damage, I was surprised to find that it was integral and completely normal. This means that Pantani could not have used any significant quantity nor for any significant length of time the epo.” When pressed further he says “yes it leaves irreversible signs in the bone marrow”. For two days no major Italian paper prints this story. On day three a modified statement supposedly from Dr. Fortuni ( though without the interview), appears in the big papers: “ that certainly Marco Pantani had not used epo in the last period of his life”. The procurator was named Guariniello. He has jurisdiction in Turin. It is he who in recent times has taken a number of testimonies from soccer players of the famous Juventus club. Many have admitted the use of epo, and other elicit performance enhancers, but they were only testifying as witnesses. It is clear that a certain medical assistant will take the fall, and then later on appeal get a reduced sentence. Conversely, in 2000, Pantani is indicted for sporting fraud (for suspected use of epo in 1995) and suffers a disqualification of 6 months. Naturally on appeal, the charges are dropped because in 1995 there was no rule against high hematocrit, and it is was not a crime. But the damage in peace of mind, money, time, and reputation was done. This Guariniello had uncovered hospital records (5 years old at the time) of Pantani with high hematocrit following the accident at the 95 Milan- Torino where he had that terrible fall that cost him a season. A race the man was not trying to win (riding in the back of the pack). Doctors for the defence provide that it is not unusual for an athlete returning from altitude racing in Columbia, who is dehydrated and with trauma, bone fractures, contusions, and blood loss to have high hematocrit (Also the measurement accuracy was put into question). Guariniello is able to find other doctors who will testify the way he prefers. Who were these doctors i.e. scientific advisors? Doctors Benzi and Ceci, who were part of CONI's anti-drug commission! Naturally this obvious conflict of interest was part of the defences appeal of the first decision (Pantani found guilty of sporting fraud). At the appeal hearing (where the case was thrown out, see above) Pantani’s lawyer Cecconi makes the following statement “"There are also a lot of scientific guidelines on the oscillations of hematocrit. The advisers for the prosecution considered an oscillation beyond 2-3 percent anomalous. In another court case dealing with doping (Bologna), the scientific advisers made reference to scientific studies conducted in the USA in which oscillations of up to 70 percent were explained. There are many controversial aspects and a highly qualified expert could clear them up," And there is of course the testimony of Renato Vallanzasca who writes of how he had been approached in prison by an inmate who had inside information during the time of the 99 Giro. A inmate suggested to him that he should bet any money he had on the rider he best thought could win, because it is a certainty that bald one will not arrive to the Milan finish. You see, that was the first year that betting on the Giro was allowed. Now you may start to think, Hmmm. Yes this is a country famous for it’s sport betting scandals. Remember Paolo Rossi. In 1981 Paolo Rossi, a tremendous young soccer talent had to serve suspension as a result of a semi uncovered game fixing scandal. Luckily he just finished his suspension and went on to lead Italy to a world cup in soccer. No thanks to the betting mafia. When there is money to be made, who cares about sport heros. It is now known (but not widespread knowledge of course) that 373 million lire were bet on Pantani to win the overall classification for giro 1999, for a required payout of 605 million lire should he have won. The odds had started at 2/1 but as the bets came in, later dropped to 1.1/1. A total of 480 million lire were bet on the overall classification winner. Only 15 million were bet on Ivan Gotti (the eventual winner). A neat swing of basically a half a million dollars in the favor of the betting mafia! What else, the testimony of Marco Velo and Siboni who were ex-teamates of Pantani, who declare that every number of strange phone calls were received by Mercatone team the night before the infamous blood test. Reporters and opposing team riders asking “is it true Marco is not to start tomorrow?” According to Roberto Pregnalato the massage therapist for Mercatone Uno team, journalists that were following the giro that year, already knew the results of the blood test that would exclude Pantani from giro 99, half an hour before the blood was even drawn. They had attended a meeting of the organizers the night before. In the nationally televised show Porta a Porta, both Velo and Pregnolato were quickly cut off mid- sentence and hustled off stage while the show went to commercial break, yes they had started to recount the events surrounding the June 5th exclusion of Marco Pantani at Giro 1999. If it wasn’t a setup why does Marco Pantani pass the team hematocrit test the night of the 4th with a measurement of 48 and then get the same result at Dozza Imolese hospital three hours after getting the infamous out of the norm result of 52 on the 5th. Why hasn’t anyone tried to find out why Pantani (without ever having tested positive to any antidoping control) has been so clamorously and insistently investigated, incriminated, and condemned in first degree, by so many tribunals without even a law that claims the suppositions as a crime. Why the procurator of Florence, who ordered the blitz of giro 2001 has not been asked why in three years there was not done a DNA test on this siringe found in a room (a room rented by Mercatone Uno but not necessarily Pantani’s room) in a hotel that Pantani had abbandoned a day earlier to see if it was used by Pantani. Instead Marco pays 8 months of disqualification, and the truth is never to be officially known. Or to Dr. Ajello (PM of the antidoping comission for CONI) why it was never asked , in one of the numerous spaces dedicated to him in the major papers, how come he resigned from his job, because he was “scandalized by the absolution of Pantani given by CAF”? As it turned out a useless absolution because not recognized by the UCI and yet he did not resign or become scandalized for the soccer players who were actually found positive by the antidoping tests and nothing done? What about on the eve of the 2000 Sydney olympics when several Italian athletes were found with high hematocrit and growth hormone traces, but the papers only mention Pantani who was on the high end of normal. And all that suppositional crap about his sick bone marrow from the supposed overuse and dependency on epo. Here it is you italian cyclists. If you don’t do what you are told, and you go against the betting mafia, and the money men, you will pay the price in Italy. In fact if you look at the riders who have received suspensions for testing positive to antidoping controls in recent years Frigo, Garzelli, and Simoni you will see that they quietly served their suspensions and re-entered without being bombarded by calumny and tribunals. They understood the lesson of Marco Pantani. (The exclusion of Simoni and Garzelli the two favorites in Giro 2002 was also very suspicious from a betting angle. Eddy Merckx on the topic of Marco Pantani, “They treated him as a criminal, but he never killed anyone. And this is what has bothered me the most of the story of Marco Pantani. They have given him an altogether improper image.” And then “even this is an injustice, to speak of a relationship between Pantani and doping: he had the means and the way to win without doping, that is in a contest made in a certain way. Oh, if only he could have kept his feet on the ground” Interviews with Marco's father and testimonies given by Manuela Ronchi, reveal that then director of the Italian cycling federation visited with Pantani at his home to promise him that the tribunals and media calumny would all stop, if he would just admit that he doped (with specific regard to Campiglio). Pantani could and would not admit to such a thing because it was untrue. So the flogging continued until the drama found the only end it could find. Perhaps the biggest injustice inflicted on an athlete in the history of sports. Quote:
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