News for December 29, 1999
Italian allegiances: EPO tracers the hub in EPO use Italian sports is facing its biggest doping scandal ever. According to the investigations of public prosecutor, Pierguido Soprani in Ferrara, the sports scientist professor Francesco Conconi and his assistant Dr. Michele Ferrari, supported by the Italian Olympic Committee and various national Sports Federations for finding a methods to reveal EPO use, have run systematic EPO doping of many Italian sports stars since the early 1990's. Among the approximately thousand athletes involved to various degrees are not only cyclists but athletes from all kinds of endurance sports. Most renowned in the records at the university unit of Conconi are cross country skiers like Manuela di Centa, who was elected into the International Olympic Committee quite recently, and three out of four Olympic relay gold medallists. Conconi's program at the university of Ferrara for finding a way to detect use of EPO has received at least 150 million lire, about 100,000 USD, from the Italian Olympic Committee the last ten years. The efforts have so far been unsuccessful. It is also alleged that EPO has been systematically used in cross country skiing, where Italy has had great success in the nineties. However, so far this season, former stars are a long way behind opponents that they easily used to defeat. Other sports under suspicion include canoeing, athletics and swimming. Norwegian retired ski star, Vegard Ulvang started his international career in 1985 and rumors of blood doping were around already then: "We saw some odd results for many years and rumors of blood doping have been around. But we had a golden rule never to discuss the matter during the big championships since nothing could be proven and it would have given us a psychological disadvantage to accuse someone. It's a sad matter but I think that the Italians are able to clean the mess up," said Ulvang to Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. An interesting fact though is that the Scandinavian ski teams, especially Finland and Norway has used low oxygen chambers to increase the level of red bloood cells. At the world championships in Ramsau last year, a Norwegian skier measured more than the skier's allowed 53 percent haematocrit level What is known is that Conconi has kept notes on various athlete's high EPO values. This has been interpreted by the prosecutor as meaning that they have administered EPO among athletes. However, they may have been financed some other way.
Italian doping: athletes questioned Fondriest responds Maurizio Fondriest, the former world champion who now constructs bicycles was questioned by prosecutor Soprani, as he was one on Conconi's "patients". He replied: "It seems to me that all this is sidestepping the issue: a big fuss that could end in nothing. If the laws are not altered, then the Federations will remain powerless. At the moment, everyone [all the athletes, doctors etc.] are being put in the same boat, no matter who you were associated with. This seems to be enough to say that you are culpable." "I worked with professor Conconi since 1991 until the end of my career. He used to test me and give me training programs which I followed with the help of my trainer, Pierino Endrizzi. For the rest, I used my doctor Fabio Diana. With Conconi, I've always had a clear relationship - he has never proposed anything, nor done anything other than test me," said Fondriest. Bartoli surprises Top Italian cyclist, Michele Bartoli has let loose with some very interesting comments: "it is difficult, almost impossible, to define the limit between doping and medicine for performance. Cycling is a profession. If an employee is sick, they should be allowed a cure, but those who use a substance and have no need for it should be punished". Chiappucci denies it Claudio Chiappucci has denied that he has had any collaboration with professor Conconi: " I have never worked with Conconi. I don't think that he could ever affirm that he was my doctor".
MTBA vs AMBA By Jeffrey Jones Australian mountain biking has undergone a crisis in recent months, where a breakaway group known as the MTBA has attempted to establish itself separately from the Australian Cycling Federation's mountain bike organisation, AMBA. The move was instigated by MTBA president, and former head of the National Mountain Bike Commission, Tony Scott, in August 1999 as a result of his extreme dissatisfaction with the way things were being run by Cycling Australia. The move was not sudden, coming about after a series of Cycling Australia board meetings where Scott tried to introduce changes to AMBA that, according to him and his supporters "would make life easier for all Australian mountain bikers". The main concerns for Scott were low cost day/club licenses, a separate mechanism for funding, a replacement for national MTB coordinator, Simon Calder and a "voice for MTB at the CA council". However at many of the board meetings, these issues were not resolved to Scott's satisfaction - in particular the day/club license proposal was thrown out. Instead it was proposed that normal CA licenses be increased by $10 a year. Also of prime concern was the diminution of the MTB "voice" on the CA Board, with the dismantling of the National MTB Commission. Nearly all of the members of this commission signed a petition to say they'd had enough, and were ready to form a separate movement, with Scott as their head. Thus, the MTBA was formed, although they still wished to remain under the auspices of CA. However, they wanted to be an independently governed body with their own control over licenses, funding etc. According to Scott, this was the case before CA took over AMBA in 1993. As expected though, a separate body still affiliated with CA was not acceptable to CA, and the MTBA was forced to break from the national federation. This involved running a separate event series, as well as asking clubs to affiliate with the MTBA rather than with CA. However, off-road cyclists who wished to compete in both series were still able to do so, provided they had a CA license. For example, the Baw Baw DH event, originally scheduled for the 15 - 16th January 2000, was moved forward by a week to the 8th and 9th January to allow for the possibility of Australia's Elite DownHill athletes to contest an CA and UCI sanctioned event (Buller, 15-16th Jan 2000) that will allow them to accrue International UCI points. MTBA are still working on gaining UCI accreditation, however they will need the permission of CA to do so(!) Although the MTBA weren't taken very seriously at first by CA, signs
of the split have already made themselves felt. The Hobart Cross Country
(Feb. 5th-6th), originally scheduled as both a MTBA and CA/AMBA event
has been changed to a MTBA event only, and CA have actually said on
their webpage that the event has been cancelled. This is somewhat misleading,
as the event is still going ahead, just without the sanctioning of CA.
The reasons given by CA were insurance concerns - they were not able
to sort out with their insurer what would happen in case of an accident
between a CA and an MTBA rider. Scott believed that this was solvable,
by considering the MTBA riders as on a "training ride". Already, many clubs have indicated that they will be joining the MTBA
in 2000, including all of Victoria and the ACT. Also, the newly formed
Queensland Mountain Bike Club (QMBC) have put their name down to affiliate
with MTBA. They were set up to allow smaller clubs to affiliate to a
larger regional organisation, without having to pay high license fees.
Such a model may be adopted in other states, and is designed, as Scott
says "to put bums on seats". This can only be good for the sport. Under
current CA "state governed" rules, it is very hard to regionalise MTBing.
The north eastern NSW region, for example would be far better run from
Brisbane, Qld rather than Sydney, NSW.
Although CA have, according to them, had trouble negotiating with
Scott, the latter still wishes to come to an agreement with them which
would possibly see a more unified structure again in 2001. Presumably,
this will include Scott's additions to the system which will have a
year to be tested. Whatever happens, next year will see a big shake
up in the organisation of Australian Mountain Biking, hopefully getting
more "bums on seats".
USPS team 2000
The US Postal service have announced their official team roster for
next year. They have kept most of the squad intact, but have added several
new riders to their 19 rider lineup. These are Jamie Burrow (GBr), Viatcheslav
Ekimov (Rus, back after a year with Amica Chips), Patrick Jonker (Aus),
Steffen Kjaergaard (Nor), Levi Leipheimer (USA), Kirk O'Bee (USA), Cedric
Vasseur (Fra), and Steve Vermaut (Bel).
2000 Roster:
Second division
Danes form talent squad
By Tomas Nilsson, cyclingnews.com correspondent
Team Fakta, Denmark's second division team will have a talent squad
when the next season starts, according to Danish website Cyclingworld.
Peter Sejer, manager at team Fakta will ride with the team as well as
Dennis Rasmussen from Chicky World and Jan Jespersen from Team Kvickly,
(the latter has also been on the U23 national team). The others Mark
Stegge, Mikkel Holm, Lars Bak and Frank Hyrsting, are amateurs. The
team will participate in Danish races but also some minor races abroad.
The name will be Team Kvickly Hammel or Hammel Cykle Klubb.
The pro squad has not yet signed Tour de France rider Marcus Ljungqvist
(sixth over Col d'Aspin). He still have some money to get from Cantina
Tollo, and that business should be settled first.
Belgium: Merckx
sportsperson of the century
Belgium has elected its sportsperson of the century through a survey
conducted by the popular Brussels daily paper "the Derniere Heure".
First place went to cyclist Eddy Merkcx, five time winner of the Tours
of Italy and France. Second position was given to Jacky Ickx, former
Ferrari racing car driver and six times winner of the Le Mans 24 hour
race. Third place went to Anderlecht footballer, Paul Van Himst. All
three of them were active in the same period: Late sixties and the seventies.
Sommariba best
in Biscaya
Joane Somarriba, winner of the women's Giro d'Italia, has been elected
Athlete of the year by the sports journalists in the province of Biscaya
in northern Spain.
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