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Menchov's Ferrari links reportedly behind UCI's Katusha licence refusal

L'Equipe says Russian star named in Leipheimer's USADA testimony and also implicated in Padua investigation...

The presence of Denis Menchov within Katusha’s roster is reportedly the prime reason that the Russian team has been refused a UCI WorldTour licence for the 2013 season, which starts three weeks on Saturday with the Santos Tour Down Under.

According to a story published by French sports daily L’Equipe on Christmas Eve, which cites as its source “a recent indiscretion by a member of the UCI’s licence commission,” the accusations against the 34-year-old come from two sources.

One is the ongoing investigation into doping, tax evasion and money laundering being led by prosecutors based in the Italian city of Padua, centred around the banned doctor, Michele Ferrari, the findings of which are set to be made public in the new year. Menchov is said to be strongly implicated in the inquiry.

The other is the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s dossier on the Lance Armstrong case and specifically the testimony of Levi Leipheimer, who according to L’Equipe named Menchov in his affidavit as a client of Ferrari’s.

Menchov’s name does not appear in the published version of the affidavit, although several names of riders and other personnel linked to teams Leipheimer rode for have been redacted. If L'Equpe is correct, Menchov's is one of the names excised from the document that has been made public.

While both Leipheimer and Menchov had long spells at Rabobank, their time there did not overlap – the American rode for the team from 2002-04 before joining Gerolsteiner, while the Russian started riding for the Dutch team in 2005 and left at the end of the 2010 season.

His next destination was the Geox-TMC team, where he rode during 2011, and it is highly possible he would never have joined Katusha at all had that outfit not folded at the end of the 2011 season following withdrawal of its sponsorship.

Menchov won the Giro d’Italia in 2009 and the Vuelta in 2007. He was also awarded the overall title in the 2005 edition of the Spanish Grand Tour after the race’s winner, Roberto Heras, was found to have failed a doping control.

However, last week the Spanish supreme court upheld an earlier civil court decision which found that there had been errors in the storage and testing of the samples taken from Heras, meaning that the Spaniard is likely to be reinstated as winner of the 2005 edition of the race.

Katusha itself has appealed the UCI licence commission’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but as things stand it does not even have a second-tier UCI Professional Continental licence for the 2013 season yet.

Moreover, its feeder team, RusVelo, which raced under a second division licence during 2012, has also been refused renewal of its licence and has been invited instead to apply for a third-tier UCI Continental licence.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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Dr. Ko | 11 years ago
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I'm with Gizmo: UCI goes visionary, they have a glass ball, so they can tell upfront who will be caught in 2013. If they release Menchov from his contract they still have enough points to play World Tour, could be a different situation with losing Rod and his points if he leaves.UCI is so bloody "transparent"  20 It seems the current team is paying for the sins of the riders in the past. (Apart from Quickstep Omega Pharma, who save money this way.)

But I already solved the Katusha problem in my blog (Dec. 15th) in James Bond style - a kind of. (Too bad that my stock of Absinth is running too low to solve other problems as well  19 )

Regards,

Dr. Ko

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jollygoodvelo | 11 years ago
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I'm now trying to work out whether I'm a psychic or visionary, or if dirty cyclists are actually so completely obvious that we might as well dispense with all the testing and messing about and just ban people.

If anyone feels they've been banned unfairly they can appeal and the UCI will conduct an anonymous survey of their team-mates to gather evidence...

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koko56 | 11 years ago
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Oh wow, really don't see what you did there UCI... so unpredictable.

Having gone through decades "not knowing" about anything doping related within cycling, now that you (have been exposed)do, drastic action you must take.

Orly? ¬¬

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