How can you sign with a team lie, and then they let you race again in Oct. 08?
Well, the great news is that it happened to Team Discovery… can’t wait to watch them crack at the back of the pack in a month… Every cloud has a silver lining i guess…
Huh?
Between the timing of his signing, his injury and then leaving his contract before this came up this had very little effect on Team Disco.
They are definitely in a better place than they were last year, several wins for Levi and Contador already and a legitimate top-5 threat in Levi if he hasn’t burnt too many matches already this season.
We’ll see…
Hope that they get their clock cleaned… (nothing against Levi).
I was saddened to see that Basso signed with them in the first place. But I shouldn’t whine: Lance is gone, - yippeee, and hopefully Chinese investors will buy them, - then maybe they’ll be out of Texas, - get rid of that Trek junk…
I can only dream…
he got a reduction for time served already, 23X some days I believe.
damn, it’s been that many days since tirreno-adriatico? I’d better start working on my Christmas shopping!
I’m still waiting for an explanation on how if his last race was March of '07, his ban ends in October '08.
In the ruling from CONI, they equated the days since Peurto or Puerto as time served. Hence the 23X days mentioned previously. See here for more
http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/12413.0.html
What a joke!
Rick.
Ahhh, now it makes complete sense! Which leads to this breaking bit of news----Team Discovery had a rider in the Tour of Califorina and Tirreno-Adriatico who looked exactly like Ivan Basso!
Couldn’t have been him though, since according to the ruling and Velonews.com, he was “on the sidelines” ;^)
Who cares? Really, who cares? He’s gone for a long period of time and that’s that. The system is the system, so let it go. He also cannot sign with a Pro Tour team for an additioanl two years, so his career is effectively finished at the Grand Tour level.
Who is Basso?
He also cannot sign with a Pro Tour team for an additioanl two years, so his career is effectively finished at the Grand Tour level.
Nah. He’s only 29. He’ll be at the Giro in '09(and possibly the Tour) just not on a Pro Tour team. The strongest continental teams are actually strronger than many of the lesser Pro Tour teams anyway.
There’s a good chance Basso hasn’t won his last grand tour.
Maybe…But, I’d bet dollars to donuts (And I love donuts) that he won’t win another. Any ProConti team he signs with would have to have a really good lineup to get him in the position to take a jersey and then defend it…In recent memory, I don’t think I’ve seen that…I could be wrong, but noentheless, we can revist this in a few years.
Bob
I agree, but there’s definitely the potential with all the riders that have been suspended lately(and many more to come). The Continental ranks could very well be flooded with superstars in a couple of years.
A team like Relax could be a look at the future of the Contenental ranks - they picked up 4 tainted riders this year in Mancebo, Sevilla, Viscioso, Perez (3 recent Grand Tour podium finshers).