(Update: June 30, 2006 — “It's a whole new Tour de France — Basso and Ullrich thrown out”) It's been slightly more than two weeks since Spanish authorities sprung a trap that netted a bicycling team manager, the assistant director of another, a doctor, and several others in a blood doping probe.
Dubbed Operation Puerto, the investigation alleges that a doctor, Eufemiano Fuentes, would dope cyclists and other athletes then cleanse their blood so they wouldn't test positive. The allegations caused a cycling sponsor to back out, the team manager to resign, and the Tour de France organizers to kick another cycling team off the roster.
Here are the highlights — or low lights — of some of the major developments since those arrests. One of the striking things is how many cyclists not implicated in the probe have fallen victim in the run up to the Tour de France because of their association with some teams.
— Liberty Seguros pulls its sponsorship: The Spanish arm of the Liberty Mutual insurance company pulled its sponsorship of its team right in the midst of the Giro d'Italia. The team was managed by Manolo Saiz, who was arrested in the drug probe.
The cyclists kept competing as the Wurth (its secondary sponsor) team, until this week when a consortium of five Kazakh companies — under the name Astana — came forth to sponsor the team. A rider for Astana, Angel Vicioso, wins a stage of the Tour de Suisse on Tuesday.
— Team manager resigns: The team manager, Manolo Saiz, who was arrested, but not charged, in the doping scandal temporarily resigns his position with the Astana team. He retains his ownership share in the team.
— Tour de France organizers ban team: The Amaury Sport Organization (ASO) pulled back its Tour invitation to the Comunidad Valenciana team after its assistant director, Jose Ignacio Labarta, was snared in the Operation Puerto probe. He has since resigned from the team. Comunidad Valenciana was formerly sponsored by Kelme.
Banning the “wild-card” team means the following cyclists don't get to compete in the Tour de France: Rubén Plaza (captain), Eladio Jiménez, David Bernabeu and David Blanco, Julián Sánchez Pimienta, Juan Gomis, José Luis Martínez, José Adrián Bonilla and David Latasa.
— Astana-Wurth team's Tour presence in jeopardy: The ASO has sent word it is awaiting a decision from the Union Cycliste International (UCI) regarding whether Astana-Wurth will compete in the Tour de France. Unlike Comunidad Valenciana, Astana-Wurth is licensed on the ProTour and thus competes in the Tour de France under UCI's auspices. (Update: June 22 — Vinokourov gets good news … )
If Astana-Wurth cannot race, that means cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov cannot compete in the Tour de France. The Kazakh cyclist finished 5th last year and 3rd in 2003; he's been mentioned as leading contender this year.
— Cyclists implicated: Leaks and rumors from the investigation have brought several cyclists under suspicion, among them Angel Vicioso, Santiago Botero, Jose Gutierrez and Oscar Sevilla.
Among them, Vicioso will not compete in the Tour de France (no reason given), Botero and Gutierrez were sidelined by Phonak until something definitive is announced (Botero later dropped out for the season); and Sevilla has denied any involvement and is among 6 riders to fill 4 remaining Tour de France spots on T-Mobile.
Recent Comments