 |
| |
|
 |
 |
 |
Italian team vows legal action Posted: Friday July 05, 2002 4:11 PMLUXEMBOURG (AP) -- Italian cycling team Saeco-Longoni, excluded from the Tour de France following a doping scandal that embroiled its star racer Gilberto Simoni, said Friday that it will take legal action against the race's organizers. In response, Tour officials stood by their decision to bar Saeco. In a statement posted on its Web site, Saeco said the exclusion was unfair given that the team had suspended Simoni and frozen his salary after he tested positive for cocaine metabolites at a random doping test in April. Saeco said it had suffered "incalculable damages" that can only be recovered "by taking legal action either directly, or through the team sponsors, who have suffered serious damage due to unfair and unjust treatment." It did not say where or when the legal action would be filed. The doping charges against Simoni forced him out of the Giro d'Italia in May -- a race he won in 2001. Tour de France organizer Amaury Sports Organization dropped Saeco last month due to the allegations, saying they wanted to honor their commitment to ban any team involved in a "serious affair." Daniel Baal, assistant director of the Tour de France, said in a telephone interview that race organizers were not concerned about Saeco's vow to take legal action. "It was normal to exclude Saeco," he said. "Saeco was given an invitation because of the planned presence of Simoni. Once he was confronted with a doping problem and taken out of the team, the team's significance was no longer the same." Saeco-Longoni's announcement came on the eve of Saturday's start to the 89th edition of the Tour de France, which begins with a 7-kilometer (4.2-mile) individual time trial in Luxembourg. In its statement, Saeco complained Tour organizers had unfairly judged Simoni because all the facts had not yet emerged in the case. Tour organizers named French team Jean Delatour to replace Saeco.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
