 |
| |
|
 |
 |
 |
Giro chaos Former race leader Garzelli fails dope testPosted: Saturday May 18, 2002 5:32 AMUpdated: Saturday May 18, 2002 1:32 PM
CUNEO, Italy (AP) -- The prestige and credibility of one of the world's top cycling races were again badly shaken this week when former Giro d'Italia leader Stefano Garzelli tested positive for a banned substance and five other cyclists were involved in doping-related cases. As doping rocked the Italian Tour for the second consecutive year, some team officials and even a consumer group urged an immediate stop to the competition. The Codacons consumer group said the Giro had become "a shame for Italy." Ivano Fanini, owner of the Amore e Vita cycling team, urged the immediate suspension of the Giro and of the entire cycling season since "results are widely altered by doping."
However, Turin-based prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello, who has been long investigating doping in Italian sports, said he had no evidence to lead him to take any action into Italy's most followed cycling race. Garzelli, the 28-year-old captain of the Mapei team, started in Saturday's sixth stage of the Giro pending results of second tests on his urine samples next week. Garzelli eventually lost the pink jersey of overall leader to German veteran Jens Heppner as he finished five minutes behind in a rain-marred leg from Cuneo to Varazze. In the wake of anti-doping investigations and tests, four cyclists of the Ceramiche Panaria team were either detained or did not start. Roberto Sgambelluri, of the Mercatone Uno team, failed a blood test but was left in the race pending second tests, Mercatone team manager Marino Amadori said. Garzelli, while denying ever taking drugs, said he prepared to retire for good if second tests are positive. Garzelli, a Giro winner two years ago, said at a news conference that he did not break any rules. "However, I'm going to leave cycling for good if second tests turn out positive," Garzelli told the Italian state-run television network RAI. "I tested positive for a medicine which does not give cyclists any advantage .... I have a clean conscience, a clean career." According to Giro organizers Garzelli tested positive for a banned diuretic called Probenecid after last Monday's second stage in Liege, Belgium, that Garzelli had won. He then snatched the pink jersey from overall leader from Mario Cipollini. Some Italian experts contend that diuretics could hide doping substances. Giro organizers said second tests would be carried out Tuesday during the second week of the race which already had been rocked by an anti-doping police raid at San Remo last year, which led to the seizure of forbidden substances and suspension of several cyclists. First tests on Garzelli's urine samples were done in a Swiss laboratory, at Lausanne, Giro director Carmine Castellano said. Second tests will be performed in Rome as the race crossed into Italy Thursday after some stages in different European countries. Garzelli would get an automatic suspension if second tests confirms the results of the first. Mapei team officials claimed that a plot against the Italian team may be behind the Garzelli case. Mapei official Aldo Sassi suggested that someone could have put the substance in beverages prepared for the team before the start of the second stage. Mapei team manager Alvaro Crespi said a team masseur, Paolo Noe, felt sick after drinking a beverage on Monday. The news that the Mapei captain had tested positive came the day after Garzelli won his second stage in this Giro, at Limone Piemonte, to consolidate his overall lead making a strong bid for a second title in three years. Garzelli, a former teammate of Italian great Marco Pantani, slipped into second place overall, 3:33 minutes behind Heppner as he finished behind in the stage, almost willing to lose the pink jersey and avoid the award ceremony. "I hope he's not guilty, that he can prove he did not take anything," defending Giro champion Gilberto Simoni said before the start of the race. "We all are fighting doping in cycling." Earlier this week two Italian cyclists of the Ceramiche Panaria team had been arrested by police for alleged doping-related charges, including possession of forbidden substances. Two other Panaria cyclists did not start Saturday. Filippo Perfetto was returning home after he was informed that he was being investigated by police for doping, team manager Roberto Reverberi said. Panaria's Russian cyclist Faat Zakirov did not start after reportedly testing positive for NESP, a performance-enhancing drug. Milan's sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport, the Giro organizer, reported Saturday that Zakirov was tested on the eve of the Giro prologue at Groningen, Netherlands, last Saturday. Of the two detained, Antonio Varriale was not competing in the Giro because of a knee injury. Nicola Chesini was taken into custody at the end of Friday's fifth stage. The four cyclists are teammates of Panaria's captain Giuliano Figueras, who could not start in this year's Giro because of a three-month suspension for taking insulin. Pantani, Italy's most popular cyclist, was banned from the Giro in 1999 following a random anti-doping blood test prior to the next to last stage of the race that he was dominating. Pantani, the captain of the Mercatone Uno team, is competing in this Giro with a possible doping suspension hanging over his head. He may be punished for an insulin-filled syringe found in his hotel room during last year's police raid at the Giro. Pantani has long claimed that the syringe was not his. About Garzelli, Pantani said "I hope he must not get through the same difficult times I have experienced." "He's a friend and he's innocent, until the authority proves the contrary," Pantani said.
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
