Valjavec,Prado and Pellizotti in troubles and some useless reflections of mine

Originally, Miss Fede hadn't plan to write any post this afternoon, but then the news of Pellizotti, Prado and Valjavec's problems has given her the occasion to reflect on a few things.

As you probably know, these 3 riders have been suspended by their teams because their biological passport showed some irregular values. Now, I'm not an expert in the doping field, but I'd like to say some things about this news anyway.

On yesterday's La Gazzetta dello Sport it was written that 5 riders were going to be stopped in these days because of problems in their biological passport.According to La Gazzetta, the 5 riders were 1 Italian (someone who had raced TdF 2009 and was going to race Giro 2010 with good expectations of victory), 1 Russian, 1 Slovenian and 2 Spaniards.Then, in the evening, the news came: "Pellizotti, Prado and Valjavec have been suspended by their teams". I had no doubts about Pellizotti's suspension (he was the only Italian who corresponded to La Gazzetta's description), but I was very surprised by Valjavec (I'll talk about this later in this post). Anyway, as you might have imagined, a question still remains in my mind: according to La Gazzetta (which is showing to be a serious newspaper even when it talks about rumours) the riders with problems are 5. Just 3 names have been said. 5-3=2.So, who are the other 2 riders, the Russian and the Spaniard, whose passport shows some irregular values? We'll know later, probably on the day of the Zoncolan stage at the Giro; or perhaps on the day of a boring stage, so that we (supporters, chronists and journalists) can all get depressed together.

Anyway, back to Pelli, Valjavec and Prado. Of course these 3 riders have already claimed they're innocent and, also this time, this has been pretty funny to see. Even if imo accusing those riders of being dopers without further information is unfair,I think that we supporters have the right of being amused by the riders' defenses anyway. So,here they are:

-First of all, Prado said that the changes in his blood profil were due to a problem he had with his haemhorroids (more info on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rosendos-blood-readings-due-to-haemorrhoids ).

-Pellizotti instead told La Gazzetta that his strange values are probably due to the training he had in Livigno,a famous Italian village that is located in the mountains. According to Franco, the altitude of that village has changed his blood values so that in the tests taken during the Tour (Pellizotti went to Livigno before of the Tour) things didn't look ok for the UCI scientists. A fascinating theory, if it wasn't that also Pozzato, Basso and Rogers often train in Livigno, but none of them has ever had strange blood values in their tests because of this (not so far,at least).

- Valjavec then said that his irregular values are due to an illness which his team doctor failed to report to the UCI last year (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/valjavec-claims-innocence-in-biological-passport-case ;the source of Pellizotti's words instead is today's paper edition of Gazzetta).

So, these are the riders' defenses. As mentioned, the name that surprised me most in this story is Valjavec's one.First of all, I probably have to say that every time I see a rider doing something very good, I always have doubts about him (yes, it's horrible to say, but that's it). Valjavec is a good rider who always gets good results, but he isn't a super champion who always has amazing performances. Therefore, I didn't think he would have had this kind of troubles in his career. Well, silly of me to think that.

The main aim of this post, however, is talking about UCI's perfect timing of giving bad news. In fact, without saying whether the riders are or aren't dopers, me has a little question about how this story was treated by UCI.In fact, if Pellizotti knew about his 'problem' on the 3rd of March, why did it take UCI more than two months to make the news become public?

On yesterday's Gazzetta there was a sentence that made me reflect for a while. McQuaid in fact, talking about these 5 new possible dopers, said: "There are 5 riders whose biological passport presents some irregular values. I think we'll tell you something between Monday and Tuesday". Oh, thank you very much for considering us, mr.McQuaid. Really,we poor supporters didn't mean to bother you, you could have given the news also on June 1st, after the Giro, we wouldn't have cared... ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Gosh, the riders get this news on March the 3rd, even before of the beginning of the season, and we know about it just 2 months later,right before the beginning of the Giro?!? And what if Pellizotti had won a Classic during the Spring campaign? I mean,it's understandable to give a rider the time to react to a doping news that directly involves him, but aren't two months a bit too much? Or am I just saying bullshits? Gosh, the Giro begins in 4 days time and you come up with this news just now?!? Are you stupid?

I'm obviously talking about this story from the supporter's point of view, but just imagine you're a rider and they tell you they've discovered you've doped. They tell you,but they don't tell anyone else. You keep on racing, perhaps winning, and in the meanwhile you wait for the news to become public. Nice situation,isn't it? You keep on pretending that everything's ok, but in the meanwhile you're waiting your world to fall apart. If I was a rider and if I was in that condition, I woud probably suspend myself, pretend to be ill, or something similar. But obviously,someone could say, there's a reason if miss Fede is a supporter and not a cyclist...

Anyway, talking about that matter, Gazzetta's journalist Luca Gialanella revealed a little but interesting anedocte about Pellizotti. On 28th April the journalists already knew that an important rider was going to have problems with the biological passport soon.Simply, they didn't know who this rider was, although lots of rumours named Pellizotti. Therefore, that day Gialanella phoned Pellizotti. They talked about the upcoming Giro, about Pellizotti's suitcase, and then Gialanella asked Pellizotti if the rumours about him were true. "I've never been to the UCI, nobody has never asked me anything and I've never had problems to solve with UCI. It's the first time I hear a rumour like that. You can never be calm when doping is concerned, but I've never had any problem of that kind",Pellizotti answered.

Gialanella ends his article with this words: "Pellizotti had been informed by the UCI on March the 3rd,almost two months before of that phone call". Well, Pellizotti couldn't actually have answered in any different way, but I believe that this anedocte is rather interesting because it gives you a not very flattering portrait of Cycledom (UCI knows, the riders know, the poor supporters and the poor journalists don't).

Well, after expressing my anger here me closes this post (which hasn't been written in a great way because I'm always chaotic when I have to express my opinions in foreign languages) and goes reflecting in front of a school book.Good day to everyone, by the way.