Bike Intelligencer » riccardo ricco

This Day in Doping: Some good news?

Paul Andrews, BI editor — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 15:14:22 +0000

But what to make of Vania Rossi’s B sample coming back negative? Haven’t seen this for awhile, and it’s a good argument for keeping the A test results unannounced till both samples have tested positive.

Whatever, the mother of his son’s good fortune may have rubbed off on Riccardo Ricco as well. Perhaps our Valentine’s Day tribute to the couple was, in retrospect, a bit harsh. We wish them a clean and healthy future!

This Valentine's Day in Doping

Paul Andrews, BI editor — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:52:29 +0000

A Story of True Love Gone Astray: Drug cheat Riccardo Ricco has decided to separate from drug cheat Vania Rossi. And just when Hallmark came out with a Valentine’s Day card aimed right at them…

This Day in Doping: All in the family?

Paul Andrews, BI editor — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:10:01 +0000

Ricco denies involvement with his girlfriend’s doping. Girlfriend denies doping. They might at least get on the same page on this…

Ricco compared to a cobra. So the question, as Ricco prepares to renew his racing career in May, is: What happens when you give a snake a second chance?

All in all we think Ricco would make a standout addition to Team Rehab, our dream alliance of Michael Rasmussen, Alexander Vinokourov, Floyd Landis and whoever else might be coming off a suspension around then, for what we are heralding as the Dopers Reunion Tour de France 2010.

This Day in Doping: Friday afternoon bad news

Paul Andrews, BI editor — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:22:04 +0000

In mainstream media the advice goes like this: If you want to bury bad news, release it on a Friday afternoon.

Well this is the blogosphere, folks, and we’re creating a whole new dynamic. You release bad news on a Friday, you’ve got a hailstorm from hell on your hands.

Case in point: Riccardo Ricco’s partner Vania Rossi testing positive for CERA, the exact substance that got Ricco kicked out of the 2008 Tour de France. OK, Vania’s not exactly a household word, and Ricco isn’t either. And typically news like this gets picked up by BikePure.org and maybe Bicycle.net and that’s about it. Doping is so ingrained in cycling culture, it’s just not big news any more.

But wait a sec…it’s Friday afternoon dude! Nothin’ goin’ on! A little Twitter here, a little Facebook there, blogs-a-poppin’ … soon you’ve got a veritable sheetstorm of linkerage and commentary.

So just in case you missed it, here’s BikePure, Bicycle.net, BikeRadar, VeloNews, and the always incisive Twisted Spoke.

(We do trust that Friday afternoon blahs are the only explanation for such breathless attentiveness and not the distaff nature of the crime. That would be sexist and bad form, even for the blogosphere.)

This Day in Doping: "Pure Tour" no more?

Paul Andrews, BI editor — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:24:42 +0000

About that “Pure Tour” of 2009? It’s getting closer to dirty. Spaniard Mikel Astarioza’s breakaway seemed unreal on the 16th stage. Now it seems it wasn’t unreal, just unclean. The UCI has suspended Astarioza for testing positive for EPO in June. It was before the Tour began, so technically we still have a clean Tour. Or not…it seems to us here at Bike Intelligencer that a doped rider sullies the race no matter when he actually did the deed. After all, Michael Rasmussen had the 2007 Tour won and still managed to smear the race by being kicked off his team on suspicions (never proven) of doping.

Rasmussen by the way is claiming he’s been blacklisted, which the UCI says is not true.

Riccardo Ricco is appealing his two-year suspension. “The rules almost don’t exist in cycling,” he says, somewhat opaquely. He’s not denying doping but trying to get out on a technicality. I guess public sympathy isn’t the goal here.

BikePure: “We acknowledge that it is the air of secrecy behind such testing whose results are rarely disclosed that has the rumor mongers shouting. Openness is the future…” Right on.