The director of the Mapei Centre says that the training facility is no longer working with Michele Scarponi’s Lampre team. The 2011 Giro d’Italia champion and other persons associated with the team are the subject of ongoing doping investigations, although those were’t specifically cited as reasons behind the Mapei Centre’s decision.
Scarponi faces a three-month ban for his association with banned doctor Michele Ferrari, but has insisted he stopped training with him after joining Lampre for the 2011 season since the move meant he came under the supervision of the Mapei Centre.
The Mapei Centre’s director, Dr Claudio Pecci, told La Gazzetta dello Sport that while the first year working with Lampre, in 2011, had gone well, the situation had deteriorated in 2012. “There was confusion. We saw Scarponi a couple of times. That’s one of the reasons why our agreement didn’t work out. Whose fault is it? I don’t know.”
It's not entirely clear from the article, which appears in the print edition of today's newspaper, wheher those two meetings with Scarponi were over the two years, or just in 2012.
The Mapei Centre was originally founded to support the riders from the Mapei team, before moving on to work with other teams and individual riders and more recently branching out into other sports, including football.
It was set up on a strict anti-doping platform by Aldo Sassi, who died of a brain tumour in December 2010, and is credited by Cadel Evans as turning him from a mountain biker into a road cyclist who would go on to win the world championship – something Sassi was still alive to see – and the Tour de France.
Evans will still be working with the Mapei Centre, although another Grand Tour winner that has used its services in recent years won’t – Ivan Basso will now be training under the supervision of Cannondale directeur sportive, Paolo Slongo.
IIRC Dutch researchers found that generally banning bikes or removing bans on bikes from pedestrianised streets usually either made no difference...
I think you'll find that you'll only go to jail if rich people are losing money from it.
He's not there to fill air-time (that's Kirby and the other one), he's there to use his expertise to give good insight into the racing. And he's...
Maybe a bit of PPE?
Thanks for the review. I like that Orbea have included aero extras and wish more manufacturers would stick two fingers up at the UCI - at least in...
Excellent - I think I'll replace my emergency tube that is a real squeeze to get into the little Topeak bottle cage bag thingy....
I enjoyed this guy I captured with his hound on New Oxford Street a few years ago.
I know this is a bit late but one thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is the extra wear and possible damage to the cycle lane surface due to being...
*bursts back into the room hours after the conversation has moved on*...
Damn, that sucks. I generally feel pretty relaxed with my bike on Avanti trains because the compartment is locked and I don't have to worry about...