Basso's Been Suspended!

donrhummy

http://www.supercycling.co.za/defau...g/international

gregkeller

Seems like Discovery would have been smart to put some kind of clause in Basso's contract that if he is definantly linked to the Fuentes thing with a DNA test or something else concrete, that he owes Discovery some reparations. Guess Discovery dropped the ball on this one, even if he is cleared 100%, which would be nice, their name has already been dragged through the mud. Riis made the right choice letting Basso go. All of this of course is hindsight, and this should be interesting to see how it plays out, and if things get settled before the Giro.

dm69

Buddy. Nothing will be settled by the giro. Basso wont be racing his bike ever again. Once they finally test the blood it will be curtains for him.

Bro Deal

Not quite. He's like 29. If his lawyer is good and the Italian federation is accomodating, he might have his suspension date start after the 2006 Giro. The federation would have to overlook his racing in California and such. He could be eligible for racing at the middle of next year.

He probably won't ever be allowed by the ASO to race the TdF and the ProTour teams would be forbidden from hiring him for an additional two years, but he could sign with a small Spanish Continental team and race next year's Vuelta. He could be on a ProTour team when he is 32 and race until he is 35.

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"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

jcthomasjr

Nobody knows what is going to happen. He may ride again or he may not. It certainly does not look good though. Got to wonder how many of these guys have actually doped though. Wouldn't surprise me either way. As to him ever riding again, I am not sure if I am in support of a lifetime ban or not. It's like if I did something wrong at my job should I be prohibited from ever returning to the workplace in my field of choice. I know we are talking competitive sports here so the comparison is not the same, but if there is a penalty and you server it out, you should be allowed to ride again.

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Bro Deal

He is not likely to be permanently banned. He has already sat out for nearly a year and his lawyer will do his best to get him credit for that. He will probably be able to sign with a Pro Continental Italian team and race the Giro in 2009. He would be 31 I think.

All the top riders dope. The bill has now come for a lot of them.

Basso's best strategy would be to pull a mea culpa, apologize for being led astray or some other B.S. excuse, and accept a two year ban that starts after the 2006 Giro.

__________________
"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

ThatDutchGuy

Its quite sad what has happend to Basso.. He is an awsome rider and his career is slowy being destroyed.

Anyways im new, Hi I love watching cycling. No much of a rider...yet

jhuskey

If this is a re-play of Ullrich's struggle, Basso will be hounded into retirement by the media.
It is very difficult to come back to where you were if you are pushed out while at the top of your game.
He may come back sometime but I predict he will never be as he was and sponsors are getting hard to find with all the bad press.
All other considerations aside Basso is a nice guy and a great cyclist.
I believe we will need to see re-birth of cycle racing because what we once knew is near death.

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Eldron

Peronsally I'm getting pi$$ed off with this whole Operation P.

First they announce a massive bust a week before the TdF (rather convenient timing I'd say!!!).

Then *poof* all is dropped due to lack of evidence.

The suddenly they announce another massive bust 2 weeks before the Giro (rather convenient timing I'd say....).

Someone is out there to destroy cycling and just about every cycling official, body, organisation is happily being led by the nose down the road to destruction.

Find some hard fu**ing evidence THEN start busting people - this whole they're guilty, maybe, if we can find the right evidence, but until we do we're going to gamble with and wreck their careers until we've finished what we think we're looking for approach is bullshit.

More than a handful of rider's careers have been ruined and we still don't have ONE positive.

Cycling officialdom is slitting their own throats. Who's going to need them when all the riders have been found guilty by media trial?

F**king w@nkers.

palewin

Well, I agree with you that Op. Puerto is being incredibly poorly handled, enough to make you wonder if it isn't a conspiricy. But buried in the 6000 pages reported in the press, there are at least some facts. Ulrich's DNA matched OP blood, so in my book that IS a positive. It sure looks like Basso expects his DNA to match as well. That is the big argument right now. According to the press reports, the Spanish teams are against DNA testing, and simply want to start "fresh"; the European teams in general want DNA testing to finally state categorically whose blood was in Fuentes' care, and who is not involved. Again, going only by my reading of the reports, the Spanish reluctance probably relates to the preponderance of Spanish riders listed in the OP documents. They were originally declared "clean" not for lack of evidence, but because Spain had no laws against sports doping (blood or EPO, etc.), only against practices that damaged the health of the "patient." So the riders were cleared on the grounds that no law had been broken. What you might call a "technicality." The European teams, presumably with fewer riders at risk, want to clear the reputation of their riders and the sport, so they are pushing for a match of DNA samples against the 200+ bags of blood in the OP freezer. My real problem with this is that everything seems to drag on indefinitely, no one seems able or willing to just do the testing and be done with it.

Pendejo

I believe we will need to see re-birth of cycle racing because what we once knew is near death.[/QUOTE]
You've got that right. But, actually, it always has been corrupt as hell; it's just that now we all know it.

no1kung1

The reputation of doping within cycling is a problem. But a governing body that treats athletes as "Guilty until proven innocent" rather than the other way around is a bigger one. I can understand there desire to come down really hard on any cyclist possibly doping, but I think there has to be more intelligent and less rash way to handle drug allegations.

Eilert Pilarm

totally f*cking agreeden with ya mate

they need to f*cking put up or shut up

if you have hard evidence--then pursue appropriate action. if not, then go to hell and stop with the rumour and speculation that gets fueled from this.

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Eldron

Personally I would have done the following:

Warn (not ban) the riders implicated in Op. Puerto and increase the amount they are tested out of season and during races (even if it means testing other riders less to keep the budget the same).

Ask all the implicated riders to give DNA samples - they have 1 month to comply after which they will not be allowed to race until the sample is supplied.

5 year ban to all riders who's blood matches Fuentes blood (Fuentes blood with illegal substances that is - all Fuentes blood without illegal substances gets thrown out).

Take the rest of the blood bags and throw them out. With the limited budgets and resources finding every guilty party would be impossible.

Surely that would have been better than the "none of you can race until we know our a$$ from our elbows approach".

Sadly I agree on the Ullrich positive - he is/was one of my heroes...