Franco Pellizotti, promoted to runner up in last year’s Giro d’Italia behind Denis Menchov following Danilo di Luca’s positive test for EPO, has been excluded from this year’s race just six days before it gets under way in Amsterdam.
The Liquigas star, who also won the King of the Mountains classification in last year’s Tour de France, is one of three riders cited by cycling’s governing body, the UCI, for discrepancies in the blood profiles of their biological passports, the others being the Spaniard Jesus Rosendo Prado of Andalucia-Cajasur and Slovenia’s Tadej Valjavec, who rides for AG2R-La Mondiale.
Rumours had been circulating for several days that the UCI planned to name several riders as having inconsistencies in their blood profiles compared to their biological passports, including a high profile Italian cyclist, which has been confirmed with the naming of Pellizotti. It is not known whether any other riders are due to be named.
In a press release issued yesterday, the UCI said: “After having informed all the parties concerned (riders, National Federations, teams, National Anti-Doping Organisations and the World Anti-Doping Agency), the International Cycling Union announces that disciplinary procedures have been requested against the following riders for apparent violation of the Anti-Doping Rules on the basis of the information provided by the blood profiles in their biological passports:
Franco Pellizotti (ITA)
Jesus Rosendo Prado (ESP)
Tadej Valjavec (SLO)”
The statement continued: “The UCI emphasises that these proceedings are being initiated as a result of the recommendations of the independent experts who were appointed when the biological passport programme was launched.
“Since the introduction of the new programme, the regular analysis of individual profiles has not only led to proceedings of the type described above, but has also allowed increasingly effective targeting of riders for out-of-competition anti-doping controls.
“Each rider mentioned above shall be accorded the right to the presumption of innocence until a final decision has been made on this matter. Under the World Anti-Doping Code and the UCI Anti-Doping Rules, the UCI is unable to provide any additional information at this time.”
Bloody hell... How are you doing now?
And I liked endura too. Got a nice long sleeve mostly merino long sleeve a little while back, in orange.
No, the Ebay lights have been around for several years, this Lezyne light just appeared.
They shouldn't worry - the second part of the "tariff" refrain is "they can make it in US and they'll do very well".
"At the going down of the sun, it will get in our eyes and cause us to crash into things."
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One thing that bothers me is the use of antidepressant med and driving, it never gets picked up by police. Most of these types of medicines state...
Indeed - but again these are perhaps questions we should keep asking. Even if the immediate answer is "well we are where we are" or "how on earth...