Today, the sports show Stade 2 
on the French public TV channel France 2 showed an interview with Ivan Basso and Lance Armstrong.
An article on the website PassionVeloBlog announced this interview a few days ago, so that's why I was curious to see it. Fortunately, France 2 provides the different topics of Stade 2 in video on demand on its website /
:-).
There have been rumours about Lance Armstrong taking drugs during his whole career after his comeback and Ivan Basso (at that time cyclist for the CSC team) was one of the cyclists being mentioned in the Puerto case.
This case started on May 23, 2006 in Madrid - during the Giro d'Italia - with the discovery of 200 blood samples and transfusion machines by the Spanish police. As a result, 9 cyclists have been excluded from participation in the Tour de France in 2006, including some of the favourites for the first place in Paris: Basso, Ullrich and Mancebo.
In October 2006 Spanish justice tells the different national cyclist federations not to use information from this case's file for any sanctions (according to some sources because too many sports and Spanish sports heroes are suspected in this case: not only cycling, but also tennis, Formula 1, football, ...), so the suspected cyclists can start looking for a team since the end of October (they can work at least until June 2007 - when the lawsuit against Fuentes, the suspected doctor, will take place).
Ivan Basso was contracted by the Discovery Channel team.
The report starts with images which remind the Tour de France: we see Lance Armstrong attacking in the mountains. When watching this, you might think Lance will make his comeback in professional cycling, but that's not true ... what we see here is Lance Armstrong challenging Ivan Basso during a training camp of the Discovery Channel team close to Solvang in California. Armstrong has always said Basso is his natural successor and therefore does everything to make sure Basso will be in good shape at the start of this year's Tour.
The report explains there's no evidence against Ivan Basso's drug taking (and as long as there's no evidence, he's not guilty according to Discovery) and that Lance Armstrong will defend him just like he defended himself during his whole carreer.
Too bad the rest of the interview only concerns the drug case (Basso has given his DNA, so in theory it should be simple to compare the blood samples with each cyclist's DNA) and not about how Basso prepares for the new season ...
On Saturday Discovery Channel announced that at the end of this season (which just started) they'll stop the title sponsorship of the pro cycling team where Basso signed a 2 year contract. After 3 years of pro cycling sponsorship Discovery Channel apparently already had enough of it ...
To watch the interview: click here or here to watch it directly in Windows Media Player /
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3 comments | 2133 views
this publication is published in: Cycling general (except Tour de France)
by Freeman over 
by Tonn over
Ja, dat staat er mooi dat Lance Basso zal verdedigen zoals hij zichzelf zijn hele carrière verdedigd heeft. Moet lukken, want het is LANCE ook steeds gelukt
wat alleen zo jammer is, is dat het alleen bij het wielrennen breed uitgemeten in de pers komt en dat je daardoor steeds minder van het wielrennen zelf te zien krijgt, zoals je zelf ook al aanhaalde... "Jammer genoeg gaat de rest van het interview met name over de dopingaffaire (Basso heeft zijn DNA afgegeven en er wordt dus onder andere gesproken over het feit dat het simpel zou zijn om de inhoud van de bloedzakjes te vergelij ken met het DNA van renners) en niet over hoe Basso zich nu voorbereid op het nieuwe seizoen ..."
Verschillende kranten schrijven vandaag dat de rechtszaak rondom deze dopingaffaire hoogstwaarschijnlijk afgeblazen zal worden wegens gebrek aan bewijs. Ten tijde van de affaire was dopinggebruik in Spanje wettelijk niet strafbaar en er is niet voldoende bewijs om aan te tonen dat de wielrenners (en andere sporters) in deze affaire gevaar hebben gelopen. --- Several newspapers today write that the lawsuit around this doping case is probably to be canceled due to missing evidence. Indeed, at the time this happened it was not illegal to use doping in Spain and there is not enough evidence that the cyclists (and other professional sportsmen) have been put in danger by the doctor. --- Plusieurs journaux écrivent aujourd'hui que l'affaire Puerto serait classée sans suite par manque de preuves. En effet, au moment de l'affaire il n'était pas légalement interdit d'utiliser des produits dopants et il n'y a pas assez de preuves qui montreraient que les coureurs cyclistes (et autres sportifs professionnels) auraient été mis en danger.