Saturday, July 7, 2007
A FAMILIAR but ominous shadow re-appeared to hang over the Tour de France here Thursday as pre-race favourite Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan was forced into defending some stark career choices.
Vinokourov, a runner-up in 2003, is the favourite to succeed disgraced yellow jersey champion American Floyd Landis ahead of the likes of Alejandro Valverde, Levi Leipheimer and Cadel Evans.
However the Kazakh's plans for a smooth entry into the July 7-29 race have gone off course - and all because of his admission that he has been working with dubious Italian sports doctor Michele Ferrari.
To make matters worse, Andreas Kloden - a key teammate of Vinokourov's who could end up aiming for the yellow jersey himself - was targeted by German reporters over his response to the recent allegations of fellow German Jorg Jaksche, who revealed he had often doped in his career, and that he had even been encouraged to by his team managers.
Kloden claimed that Jaksche's testimony could not be trusted because, he claims, Jaksche had been paid 100,000 euros by the magazine Der Spiegel.
The race begins this Saturday with a 7.9km prologue in London, and in its search for a first champion since Lance Armstrong hung up his knicks after 2005, Vinokourov ironically finds himself in a similar position to the American.
In 2001 Armstrong admitted he was working with Ferrari, a sports doctor who, it is widely believed, has been a pioneer in the administration of EPO (erythropoietin).
That belief is partly down to a now famous declaration by the Italian shortly after the Gewiss team, with whom he had been working, placed three of their riders on the podium of the 1994 Fleche Wallonne one-day classic.
"EPO is not dangerous, it's the abuse that is. It's also dangerous to drink 10 liters of orange juice," Ferrari was quoted as saying as he explained Gewiss's sweep of the podium to stunned reporters.
Vinokourov took an Armstrong-like stance in maintaining that Ferrari, who appears to be held in awe by the peloton for his supposedly efficient training plans, has never prescribed him doping substances.AFP
Vinokourov, a runner-up in 2003, is the favourite to succeed disgraced yellow jersey champion American Floyd Landis ahead of the likes of Alejandro Valverde, Levi Leipheimer and Cadel Evans.
However the Kazakh's plans for a smooth entry into the July 7-29 race have gone off course - and all because of his admission that he has been working with dubious Italian sports doctor Michele Ferrari.
To make matters worse, Andreas Kloden - a key teammate of Vinokourov's who could end up aiming for the yellow jersey himself - was targeted by German reporters over his response to the recent allegations of fellow German Jorg Jaksche, who revealed he had often doped in his career, and that he had even been encouraged to by his team managers.
Kloden claimed that Jaksche's testimony could not be trusted because, he claims, Jaksche had been paid 100,000 euros by the magazine Der Spiegel.
The race begins this Saturday with a 7.9km prologue in London, and in its search for a first champion since Lance Armstrong hung up his knicks after 2005, Vinokourov ironically finds himself in a similar position to the American.
In 2001 Armstrong admitted he was working with Ferrari, a sports doctor who, it is widely believed, has been a pioneer in the administration of EPO (erythropoietin).
That belief is partly down to a now famous declaration by the Italian shortly after the Gewiss team, with whom he had been working, placed three of their riders on the podium of the 1994 Fleche Wallonne one-day classic.
"EPO is not dangerous, it's the abuse that is. It's also dangerous to drink 10 liters of orange juice," Ferrari was quoted as saying as he explained Gewiss's sweep of the podium to stunned reporters.
Vinokourov took an Armstrong-like stance in maintaining that Ferrari, who appears to be held in awe by the peloton for his supposedly efficient training plans, has never prescribed him doping substances.AFP