Road Bike Racing - hmmm

Pantani and Ullrich suspected
The news went almost unnoticed but should have been read more carefully. Italy's Marco Pantani, Germany's Jan Ullrich are suspected by the magistrate of Florence in Italy to have used illegal substances during the 2001 Giro d'Italia.

quick access : NEWS: Vandenbroucke caught in possession of EPO


The list was made public by the Italian publication "Gq" on March 4th. According to the Italian publication, the substances found were insulin, Gh, a growing hormone, cafeine, and corticosteroids. The Italian publication goes even further explaining that Pantani had reportedly used insulin and Ullrich corticosteroids. None of the riders were available to comment on March 5th.



The 2001 Giro had been marked by unexpected raids by 200 drug squad officers at team hotels in the final stages of the Giro in which unspecified amount of drugs had been seized.

I'm not a big fan of Pantani.

Originally posted by fubar5
I'm not a big fan of Pantani.

I like Pantani, I wished he'd get his stuff together. He used to be an impressive climber. But he has been such an idiot in the past few years. I'm not a Ullrich fan.

A guy I work with (non-cyclist) is named Ulrich (last name) and I don't really like him, thus, I'm not an Ulrich fan either!

Pety Yes, but sometimes I can't help myself!

I like Ullrich. He's a fighter.

Bear in mind that the Giro raid was nine months ago and no charges have been laid... moreover, a whole lot of racers have been linked in the Euro Sports press to doping on very, very tenuous grounds [Lance Arnstrong is one], so a lot of this stuff should be taken with a grain of salt until there's some proof.

And, if Pantani was taking performance enhancing drugs last season, he should get his money back.

Reportedly Ullrich tested positive for corticosteroids but was
cleared (known) by UCI. The news was that he was using steroid cream on a bad case of saddle sores.
Uhm, Pantini using insulin? didn't know he was diabetic....

Marty

Ullrich is great. He is the only remote challenge to Lance's dominance of the Tour and the only thing that makes the Tour interesting to watch. Not only is Ullrich a champion, but he is gracious.

Pantani, while he is interesting to watch, does not seem to be a very nice person. It was great to watch him climb when he was in top form. It's a shame to think that his flights were fueled by illegal performance enhancing drugs.

Not news to me. Follow European press and pretty much 90% of riders are accused at some point. Take it from me, they are not inocent.

Pantani is defiently no inocent. Just look at hi performance. Nothing all year and then one event of the year he riders too awesome.

Ullrich has played with stuff in the past but I can pretty much swear he has been very clean lately. He as well as most Telekom riders are very scared and their carrers are the ones that support the family so they cannot take chances.

I just want to post one more vote for the underdog Ullrich. My vote has nothing to do with the fact that I live in hometown of Team Telekom (yes, Bonners are tired of fuschia). But, anyone who so consistently comes in second should get a hand. And anyone who goes flying off into the bushes at 80 km, only to get back up and keep going should also get a round of applause. (But, hand it to L.A. on the sportsmanship for waiting).

Sadly, for endurance sports, the innocent ones are just a scientific step ahead of the referees.

Cheers!

Yeah Ullrich is coolio. But to be straight with you guys, I'm a Lance fan. However, just because I'm a Lance fan doesn't mean I don't like other riders, or I think Lance is the best rider, or that everybody else stinks.

The whole thing is so stupid- I saw the list of drugs. Some of them were probably from drinking lots of coffee or tkaing allergy medicine. Ullrich is an asthmatic which also could explain corticosteroids. As for the insulin, that's just dumb on Pantani's part.

As for Ullrich, I'm a big fan of his and root for him! He is not an underdog at all in my book; he's germand champ, world champ three times. ANd his birthday is right after mine! So I'm biased. He is no dummy and I doubt he'd screw it all up with drugs. As for Pantani being a nice person, how do we know? ANd what difference does it make if he's nice? It's not like he's a member of your family and you have to see him at Christmas.

Ullrich has grown on me. He seems to have matured in the last couple of years. We might really see some stuff from him this year. Lance I'm kind of mixed on. I thoroughly admire his focus and ability to prepare for one specific race effectively. On the other hand it's hard to get excited about someone who other than TDF takes part in so few races. How popular would the best quarterback in the world be if he only played one game a year? Or Tiger Woods for example if he played only the US Open or the Masters. He probably has been the impetus for many people to get on a bike or back on. More power to him for that.

I'd like to see Lance race more also. But I'm still a Lance backer.

Everyone would like to see L.A. race more. But what's with the stomach bugs that take him out of races? One just took him out of the Vuelta a Murcia and last September another bug made him quit the San Francisco Grand Prix after only 7 goes on the Filmore St. hill. I guess I remember too well those Monday mornings when I was a supervisor in a big company and the calls would start to come in from employees calling in sick with "the stomach bug that's going around." And everyone knows that the supervisor is not going to ask any more about what's going on in the employee's bowels. So those words "stomach bug" always make me suspicious.

Rich

Ullrich is also pretty lucky. At least when he tumbles. Almost anywhere else on that descent last year, and it was many meters of very hard rocks - could have been many hundreds of meters. As it is, I still laugh when I see the film because if you watch closely, just at the end of that particular shot you can see the water splashing up to eye level from where he landed in the drink.

I like him as well - he is a gracious man. It is just too bad that he can't/won't change his climbing style a little. I have to believe that if he spun a bit more going uphill rather than pushing the highest gears he would do better against Armstrong.

Cheers...Gary

Who knows, he might do just that this time around. I remember that fall when he went into the ditch and then emerged with mud all over his nice white jersey. Ullrich focuses on the TDF as well but he does do quite a few other races, like HEW Cyclassics, and his national champs (which Armstrong never does anymore) and the Worlds, which armstrong hasn't done since 1998. He sees other races as equally important- I remember he even dropped out of the Vuelta in 2000 so he could get ready for the Olympics because he wanted a medal. I hope he does the Vuelta or Giro this year.