Mazzoleni is out. Who had him picked? The odds were what, one to one on that?
The Astana has dropped Italian rider Eddy Mazzoleni from its nine-man Tour de France team due to doping allegations….
Mazzoleni, a strong climber, has been dropped because of his implication in a doping affair dating back to 2004.
Source: [...]

The hits just keep coming.
From: Kt
Subject: Et tu DiLuca
You read the latest on Cycling News? DiLuca recorded on tape talking w/ a
doctor about taking EPO prior to Milano-San Remo… shit just keeps sliding
downhill…
Yeah, I saw that. I’d like to say I’m surprised…
But I’m not.
In a recorded conversation from March 3, 2004, five days before Milano-Sanremo, [...]

Caught this one over at velonews.com:
With the Tour de France just weeks away, there’s a high stakes game of cat and mouse between a half-dozen so-called suspect riders identified by the UCI and anti-doping testers.
“We have targeted six, seven riders considered a high risk because of their suspicious behavior and because they could perform very [...]

This just in:
Cunego Out of Tour! The UCI insistence on riders signing the new anti-doping charter may be the beginning of a round of withdrawals from this years Tour de France.
On a side note: Cunego is looking a bit different these days. Must be on the Barry Bonds Program.

This one I may actually lay some money on the table for From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France by David Walsh.
Yeah, that David Walsh.
Walsh has spent eight years investigating the doping allegations and has on-the-record testimony of numerous named sources, including friends, team management, riders, government officials, [...]

Gonchar did a transfusion or EPO or something, and the internal blood profiling in T-Mobile caught it, and they booted him.
Usually, almost always, the teams are complicit. Usually, almost always, the teams provide the docs and the expertise and the dope itself. Then the riders may or may not do something “on top” of that. [...]

Bjarne Riis admits buying a new heart in Africa – Subtittled. Will wonders ever cease?

Just in time for the summer and sure to take care of your beach reading needs. I’d buy it, but I already know how it ends.
…“I did not use performance-enhancing drugs in the 2006 Tour de France or any other time in my career,” Landis writes in the book. “All I ever did was [...]

Basso gets two years for doping offence.
Ivan Basso has been given a suspension of 24 months by the Italian cycling federation (FCI) disciplinary commission for his involvement with Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, and will be able to resume racing October 24, 2008. The 29 year-old Italian cyclist confessed on May 7 that he had extracted the [...]

The 2007 edition of the Dauphine is exceeding expectations. One team is standing out above the others: Astana.
Vinokourov, Kashechkin, and now Colom have made their mark on the race. The only racer close to making such an impression: Frenchman Christophe Moreau. It must be mentioned that no one’s walking away with this – there are [...]

Looks like a few folks will be going on a little vacation this July. Some time of the bike, perhaps? Some rest in order?
Bosses from cycling’s biggest teams met behind closed doors Wednesday night in an effort to fend off potential surprises ahead of next month’s Tour de France.
Following rumors that more riders [...]

Oh hell.
The three riders who produced ‘non-negative’ results during the three-week Giro d’Italia were Spaniard Iban Mayo and Italians Alessandro Petacchi and Leonardo Piepoli. For the Spaniard from the Basque country, winner of stage 19 to Comano Terme, the urine sample tested produced high levels of testosterone.
Source: cyclingnews.com
I’d say something like I’m waiting for [...]

There is a pretty good doping article today over at Velonews. I hope this is the beginning of Dawn Richardson’s writings on the subject. There is a lot more to be said, and it seems Ms. Richardon has just touched the tip of it in this piece.
For four years I’ve been [...]

The shit is hitting the fan.
Additional searches by Belgian authorities have turned up more prohibited substances, and two people remain in custody following this week’s raids near Kortrijk. Authorities are claiming to have found just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, and are holding ex-racers Rik Coppens and Pierre Herinne as alleged dealers. The pair, both [...]

OK, let’s get this straight as reported in Velonews. T-Mobile fields a top tier cycling team for about $12 million (a mentioned figure of the cost for a top tier team, I don’t know the real numbers). They also dump $1 million Euros into sponsoring the Tour de France within Germany.
Now, because of the [...]

A reader submission:
From: Eric
have you seen this? Bill Strickland over at Bicycling, soft-pedaling his implicit first-hand knowledge of doping…
sittingin.bicycling.com
pardon my french, but what a fucking wanker. and yeah that’s me shouting from the soapbox in the comments.
I know a bit about doping as well. And what I’ve always said is everyone is [...]

I just read that Bjarne Riis’s name is to disappear from the official Tour de France publications. I don’t think this is a good idea. Sure, it’s your race and you can do whatever you want with it. But what we all need, in all of cycling, is the truth. [...]

The good time just keep on trunkin’

Former Team Telekom soigneur Jef d’Hont is not backing down in his attempt to force a confession from Jan Ullrich. d’Hont appeared on German TV again on Tuesday evening where he once again pointed the finger at the 1997 Tour de France winner. “I repeat: in the second half [...]

I hate to say it, but this whole thing starts making sense when I sit back, look at it all, and the pieces seem to fit together. A recent study found a link between the use of human growth hormone and testosterone. Is in, the testosterone complements the growth hormone. It is, [...]