Guido Mukk wrote:
Some copy and paste from cyclingnews..

Alejandro Valverde missed an out-of-competition control on June 23 during the lead-up to the Tour de France. The UCI has given him opportunity to defend himself within ten days according to todociclismo.com. Similar circumstances led to the ejection of Michael Rasmussen from the Tour de France and an eventual dismissal from Team Rabobank. However, Valverde's representatives have indicated the UCI knew of his location since it was the day before he rode the Eindhoven Team Time Trial.

"Just embarrassing," said Eugenio Bermúdez, the secretary of the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC). "It seems to me embarrassing and cheap that the UCI asks Valverde to present his evidence, and it threatens him with an admonition. He is able to demonstrate his absence through his plane ticket. Furthermore, in the race he passed the [anti-doping] control. The UCI has pulled out some items that are not compatible with the reality."


What you think about that..fight. At least I se first time how cycling federation..want to give a "green light" for suspicious rider.

CrueTrue wrote:
I agree with Panaflex and PensFan. Also, I don't think we should forget that the retest of Lance's test from 1999 showed lots of EPO. I don't think Lance was an exceptionally good cyclist - I think he was exceptionally good at being one step ahead of the others medical wise. He knew exactly what he was tested for, he knew exactly what he could use without being caught. He used EPO until it was possible to test for it. And since then, he has most probably used blood doping like Ullrich, Basso, Vinokourov and all the other big stars. And then he stopped before they were able to trace that down.

Yes, that's not evidence. I don't have any evidence - but there's lots and lots of circumstantial evidence.

Caisse d'Epargne Directeur Sportif Eusebio Unzúe explained on Wednesday afternoon to Cyclingnews that he had phoned to the UCI with the purpose of resolving the Alejandro Valverde disagreement. At issue is the e-mail received by Valverde last Sunday, in which he had been demanded to justify his absence when UCI anti-doping inspectors visited his home in Murcia on June 23.

"The UCI recognized to us that there had been an error," Unzúe said. "At the same time that we indicated to them, the UCI, that we had sent a fax [June 12 - ed.] in which we announced that Valverde was going to be racing in Eindhoven."

The Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) is expected to send a letter to the UCI regarding Valverde's position in Operación Puerto. The UCI had demanded that there be an investigation of the 27 year-old Spaniard, and that he is to not allowed to ride the World Championships. According to AS, RFEC will likely communicate that there was nothing new that links Valverde with Operación Puerto. Therefore, the RFEC won't open any disciplinary proceedings against Valverde.

The RFEC has studied, together with Valverde's and Caisse d'Epargne's attorneys, the documentation that the UCI sent them over a period of two days. All parties were convinced that there is nothing new.

Alejandro Valverde's manager, Sánchez Sabater, announced that they are willing to take an action against the UCI "if it impedes Valverde for the World Championships without any legal backing," and also against "everybody who links him to the Operación Puerto without citing any evidence." He admitted that "until now, we have been prudent; we did not want cause any more stink."

Alejandro_Valverde wrote:
I absolutely agree with that, and Indurain had better physical stats than Armstrong, according to Wikipedia.

doddy13 wrote:


So?? I can edit wikipedia to say Gilbert has better stats than Mercx if i wanted to.
I think Lance was clean, watch his biography by the Biography Channel 'Racing for his life' at many points the doctors who worked with armstrong said his body was perfect for cycling.
He trained whilst going through Cancer Treatment and was rejected at school, he took his anger out on the bike.

He was winning all sorts of races at the age of 16. Local Running races, Triathlons etc.

MarcoPRT wrote:
Don't even compare one man to another...Armstrong is a man in a million, as he said in his book, when he went to a clinic at 16years old, they tested his capacity to breathe and the cpacity of suffering, and he had, and he continues to have, the most huge value in the firts thing and one of the most low values at suffering...

Do you still think he doped himself?

CrueTrue wrote:
PensFan: Well, it depends.. If they sign Contador et al, you will see them a lot, unfortunately.

Karl_rab wrote:
isnt he going to rabobank ?

PensFan101 wrote:
He would never admit he doped, especially in a book.

But anyway, I'm glad Valverde got cleared, even if he did dope, because it seemed just like it ws said, a campaign to destroy his reputation. Even though we have factual evidence against Floyd Landis, he was still thrown under the bus a little too hard...

And as for Gerolsteiner, I know I said they haven't done a whole lot in terms of results, but seeing more teams fold/threaten to fold is saddening.

AND (sorry) about Astana, that is surprising. I thought it was 3 positives and no PT liscense... They won't be that great though now without Vino, Kosh, and Kassler anyway...