Two weeks before the hearing of Ivan Basso by the Italian Olympic comittee, the president of the Italian Cycling federation
(FCI) Renato Rocco continued to back Basso and questioned the credibility of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. Rocco already
commented in July: "We are standing with Basso, if there is evidence of wrongdoing then we will be the first to penalize
him but i don't think this will happen." Basso was one of 58 riders who were suspended by their teams after the UCI received
a list with clients of doctor Fuentes.
The Italian Cycling federation received the documents about the Puerto case on August 3 and according to bicirace.com
Rocco said: "From the documents i have seen, there are not sufficient elements to accuse (Basso)." Di Rocco questioned the
validity of the paperwork the Italian federation was given by the Guardia Civil. The FCI president that Fuentes could be fabricating
his relationship with Ivan Basso. Rocco stated "I believe that Fuentes is boasting the relation with Basso" and continued
by saying: "This serves to make himself more important in certain circles".
About the fax were Ivan Bassos was written on by Eufemiano Fuentes, Rocco said: "This fax we knew of before and according
to me it serves to show that Basso can't be Birillo, the number 2 and the other times be Ivan Basso. Who uses codes, will
always use codes".
Ivan Basso could still be in trouble and even if he is allowed to race again he might have to look for another team.
In an interview with Danish newspaper Politiken, Basso's team manager Bjarne Riis told the newspaper today: "Ivan
must prove his innocence to us," and continued by saying: "If it's shown that Basso had a liaison with Fuentes, if he lied
to me and betrayed the team and the values which we defend on this team, he is finished at CSC."
Meanwhile the French newspaper L'equipe published a story on Sunday that the UCI will release another 50 names of ridersin
the Fuentes scandal in the coming days. It's not known if the UCI is going to publish the names of the riders on the
list or give them directly to the teams and the organizers of the Vuelta Espana, which will start next saturday. L'equipe
wrote that the 50 riders are racing for 14 different teams of which 7 are pro-tour teams.
UCI president Pat McQuaid told L'equipe: "It will be responsibility of each team to decide whether or not their rider
or riders should be excluded from competition," McQuaid told the paper. "Not all riders were involved to the same degree and
some of them may not necessarily need to be punished."
In an earlier interview, McQuaid
told US based website velonews.com:"Our legal department is working through
the documents. Some pages have gone out. The Basso pages have gone to Italy and the Ullrich stuff to Switzerland," he said.
"It's been a huge amount of work involved in it. It's a 500-page document with names all over the place. It's a police report,
it's not like the documents we are used to working with. It's new ground. It's taken three lawyers almost working full-time
to get through this."
On Tuesday afternoon Pat McQuaid had an interview with cyclingnews.com. McQuaid said in the interview that there are
no new names on the Fuentes list.
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