Bike Intelligencer » danilo di luca http://bikeintelligencer.com All bike, all the time Sat, 04 May 2013 01:18:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 This Day in Doping: Giro riders on notice! http://bikeintelligencer.com/2010/05/this-day-in-doping-giro-riders-on-notice/ http://bikeintelligencer.com/2010/05/this-day-in-doping-giro-riders-on-notice/#comments Wed, 05 May 2010 16:16:22 +0000 Paul Andrews, BI editor http://bikeintelligencer.com/?p=2950 On the eve of the 2010 Giro d’Italia, three riders have been targeted by the UCI for disciplinary proceedings based on possible blood doping: Franco Pellizotti, last year’s runner-up in the Giro, Tadej Valjavec, eighth in the same event, and Jesus Rosendo.

You have to love the Giro. Pellizotti actually finished third last year but got 2nd place when the rider ahead of him, Danilo Di Luca, was bounced for CERA. If he and Valjavec both go, another shakeup in the rankings seems assured.

Is a message being sent here? D’ya think?

More intriguing is the notion that the “biological passport” was invoked in the announcement. No details were disclosed, but it will be interesting to track how reliable the passport program is, and how durable its conclusions are in the certain face of challenge.

All of this assumes that Twisted Spoke is incorrect in its assessment that Pellizotti’s hairspray was to blame. Maybe Franco could just shave his head! And all would be forgiven…

]]> http://bikeintelligencer.com/2010/05/this-day-in-doping-giro-riders-on-notice/feed/ 0 This Day in Doping: Di Luca goes down with fighting words! http://bikeintelligencer.com/2010/02/this-day-in-doping-di-luca-goes-down-with-fighting-words/ http://bikeintelligencer.com/2010/02/this-day-in-doping-di-luca-goes-down-with-fighting-words/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:26:10 +0000 Paul Andrews, BI editor http://bikeintelligencer.wordpress.com/?p=1921 Two-year suspension for Danilo Di Luca comes at a terrible time, as we continue to assemble our our dream Team Rehab in the Dopers Reunion Tour de France 2010. So far Michael Rasmussen and Alexander Vinokourov are on board, and we’re hoping for Floyd Landis. Only a miracle would get our favorite doper, Tyler Hamilton, into the Tour, but we can always hope.

As for Di Luca, all hope is not lost:

“This is not over. I can still try to fight this and I’m going to. We will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS),” Di Luca said, according to the ANSA news agency.

After all, he only tested positive twice. If it had been 5 or 10 times, well, we might concede the UCI was correct in banning him. But a couple of times, hey, the varsity squad of my hometown high school couldn’t meet that threshold.

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