Fuentes and his other clients

Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes during
Tuesday's hearing in Madrid.

During the Tuesday’s hearing in Madrid, Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, made it clear that he didn’t just dope cyclists but in fact “all kind of athletes - football players, tennis players, boxers…”.

So far Fuentes has only named a handful of clients by name, but according to the Spanish doctor he would be able to identify every single code name on the list, if he had too. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem likely.

It’s important to remember that this hearing is not about if Fuentes doped athletes or not - he already admitted to blood transfusions – because that wasn’t illegal in Spain until November 2006. Eufemiano Fuentes is “only” facing charges of an “offense against public health” and therefore he doesn’t need to mention any specific names.

Whistleblower and former Kelme rider, Jesus Maria Manzano, is set to witness in February but has already said that he saw several football players during his visits to Fuentes’ clinic in Madrid. French newspaper, Le Monde, made in 2006 a connection between Barcelona and Dr. Fuentes claiming they were in position of doping calendars for several Barcelona players like the ones seen for the Liberty Seguros riders. Barcelona sued Le Monde and journalist Stéphane Mandard and won. In the end Le Monde was set to pay Barcelona a fine of €15.000 for “damaging the club’s honor”.

In recent years Eufemiano Fuentes has been linked to the football world numerous times and when arrested during Operacion Galgo a cellmate of Fuentes told a Spanish a newspaper that Fuentes had said: “If I start talking, we won’t have the European Championship nor the World Cup”. Fuentes later made a written statement denying ever to have said those words.

I doubt Eufemiano Fuentes will start dropping names but at least he made it clear that it’s not only cyclists he has been taking care of. Tennis star Nova Djokovic recently said that he was sure tennis players were the most clean athletes. Djokovic also admitted he hadn’t been blood tested in more than half a year. Same story in football as UEFA claim that Barcelona only had 3 surprise anti-doping controls in the 2010/11 season. To compare it Fabian Cancellara wrote on Twitter back December 2010 that he had had 55 anti-doping tests last year.

Click here to watch the video of Eufemiano Fuentes admitting to working with cyclists, football players, tennis players etc.

Vuelta Preview - Stage 9

It’s the last stage before the first rest day and many riders are tired after more than a week in 35°c. It’s the second longest stage in this Vuelta España and I think it would suit the peloton perfectly if a break could get away. That being said there are quite a lot of riders who will have marked this stage in the race book for a potential sprint in Barcelona.

The stage is 196,3 km but actually it’s only the final 5 km you should be concerned about. Entering Barcelona the peloton faces Alto de Montjuic up to the Olympic stadium. It’s only 1,1 km long but an average gradient of 8,1% should bring the attacking feeling out in the many riders. From the top of Montjuic there are only 3,4 km to go and if a strong rider gets a gap he will be difficult to catch on the tricky descent before the last 700 meters uphill.

The final 5 km of stage 9 - click for larger view!

I know for a fact that Danish Matti Breschel has this stage red-circled and I’m sure he will try go for it if it comes to a sprint. Still I have to say my favorite for the win will be have to be Gianni Meersman (look ma', - not Swift!). 

The Belgian sprinter has shown super shape in the first week and he even managed to stay with the best a long way up the nasty finish in Jaca where he ended 19^th on the stage. Lotto-Belisol haven’t really much to do in this race without Jurgen Van den Broeck going for the GC and if they are to get any kind of success Gianni Meersman will definitely be their best card to play.

For a joker I put my faith in Pim Ligthart. Vacansoleil-DCM have - as always - been very active in the breaks so far in this Vuelta but so far without getting much out of it. Thomas de Gendt came close the other day and same de Gendt told me before the Vuelta to keep an eye on Ligthart. So far the former Dutch champion hasn’t shown much but I think that if he can stay near the front on Montjuic he could be a good joker for the stage.

I can only pick one joker, but I would like to point out that this finish also suits Simon Clarke perfectly! I don’t know if GreenEdge want to give Davis another chance but in my opinion they should let Clarke have a crack at it. Purito has also said he would like to something in his home town and together with Dani Moreno, Katusha could really spice up this stage if they attack on Montjuic!

Winner pick: Gianni Meersman

Joker: Pim Ligthart

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To make this Vuelta a little bit more interesting I’ve challenged Eurosport blogger Blazin' Saddles to a winner pick duel during the race. You have my winner and joker picks above, here you have Felix':

Winner pick: José Joaquin Rojas

Joker: Biel Kadri

Explanation: The easy money is on John Degenkolb making it four but that tricky Montjuic climb towards the end could well prove too hard for Argos Shimano to control. Jose Rojas has been quiet so far but he should get over the rise and then have enough juice to take the sprint in Barcelona. As for a wildcard, Biel Kadri is a nice all rounder who could pull off a win from a break. It's a bit of a stab in the dark, but that's the point of choosing a joker!

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Overall score:
Felix 6 points
Mikkel 3 points 

Right winner pick gives 3 points, if the joker wins it's 5 points while it's 1 points if the joker makes top3 on the stage.

Kittel: No - FC Barcelona: Yes

Following Monday’s news that the second most winning cyclist in 2011, Marcel Kittel, is being linked to doping abuse, I wanted to bring back a little comic strip the Spanish sports paper, AS, brought last year when there were doubts if some of FC Barcelona’s injured players would be fit for the Champions League match against FC København.

Guardiola: Doctor, do you think that Xavi & Puyol will be ready
to play the match against FC København today?
Doctor: To play against FCK, I don't know, but to do the Tour, of course!

The wrongly called “doping treatment” that Marcel Kittel has been undergoing (4 years ago!!)is a UV treatment. To those of you who is not familiar with this treatment, Marcel Kittel’s Project 1t4i team explains:

"Dr. Franke took a very small amount (a few cc) of blood from the body via a syringe and put this under UV lighting immediately to fight the infection in the blood. This blood was subsequently reinserted into the body. The entire treatment did not take more than a few minutes. It did not involve an infusion or transfusion."

According to WADA this is not legal. “If the treatment involves taking blood from athletes, manipulating it and then re-injecting it, then that process is prohibited under section M2.3”, WADA’s communications director Terence O’Rorke tells VeloNation.

Marcel Kittel used this treatment to get over a flu. It might seem a bit extreme just for a flu but to see it as doping it’s simply too much!

To return to the Spanish comic strip, FC Barcelona is known for using a specific plasma-treatment helping their players get fit a lot faster than normally. The doctors take out a blood sample and centrifuge it. By this they can pick out only the extra plasma-rich parts of the blood, which they inject back in the inflamed area to help the body recovery faster. This is perfectly legal in the football world. Spanish tennis star, Rafael Nadal, uses this treatment as well. Like FC Barcelona without any sanctions.

 Am I the only one finding this extremely pathetic?

Interview - Caroline Wozniacki talks cycling & anti-doping tests

Caroline Wozniacki - Number 1 in the world.

Caroline Wozniacki is the number one female tennis player in the world and knows what it takes to get to the top. I thought it would be interesting to get another view on cycling from an outstanding athlete of another sport. Therefore I made this quick, little interview with the Danish tennis darling.

Caroline, to start off, how much cycling do you watch?
Do be honest I don’t watch that much, but I do watch some of the stages of the Tour de France when it’s on. I think that the riders’ endurance is incredible and what they manage to do during the Tour is simply outstanding.

Do you have a favorite rider?
I remember I cheered for Bjarne Riis when he was in the Tour de France, but now I just support the Danish team [Team Saxo Bank].

Any specific cycling moments you remember?
Well, not a specific moment, more all of the things Lance Armstrong did in his career.

As number one in the world, you are used to the enormous pressure on your shoulders. How do you cope with that and do you see any parallels between tennis and cycling in that direction?
First of all you have to be mentally very strong to reach the top. It requires a lot mentally to be able to keep on pushing yourself in the difficult times. For what concerns me, I try to take it easy now. I know that I have already achieved a lot of great things, so I just try to enjoy every second of it. I have already achieved more than I have ever dreamed of! Now I just try to improve every day and see where it takes me.

To change the subject a little. It’s no secret that cycling is the sport with the most anti-doping tests per year. A rider like Fabian Cancellara had almost 60 tests last year. How many anti-doping tests did you have this season?
Actually I think it’s more than 30. So even though it’s not as many as in cycling, I still think that we are getting tested a lot. I don’t think it’s easier to cheat here since we are getting tested in every tournament we participate in.

Thanks to Caroline Wozniacki for taking time. I think it’s very interesting to notice the amount of anti-doping tests that Caroline, as number one in the world, had this season. People usually claims that big money sports like tennis and football don’t have the same amount of tests as cycling, and even though the number isn’t 60 like in the extreme case with Cancellara, I must say that 30 is a lot higher than I expected. Glad to be proven wrong. What concerns football, well, nothing has changed. According to UEFA, Barcelona had only 3 unexpected anti-doping controls last season.