Bedtime Storytime
Posted By Jessica On 3rd July 2006 @ 23:28 In Travel Tips | No Comments
Here are a few news tidbits before I go to bed… Tomorrow’s a big day - we’ll see some of the first real hills in the Tour (the mountains are still to come) in the morning, and around lunchtime we’ll settle in to watch the Italy vs. Germany match in the World Cup semis. No matter that it’s America’s birthday - it’s going to be a good day for Euro sports.
- Communitat Valenciana, the wildcard team that was uninvited from the Tour because of their alleged involvement in “Operacion Puerto,” says they’ll be taking legal action “against the people in charge of the investigation and those who have [provided information to the media] and against [members of the] mass media that have accused anyone [of doping] in the Communidad Valenciana team without having the documentary evidence necessary to prove culpability.” The statement also says that the 32 members of the team will sue for personal, sporting and economic damages sustained over the last few weeks.
- Würth has followed Liberty Seguros in pulling its sponsorship from the beleagured Astana team. This isn’t shocking news, as the candy company had hinted they would pull out if the team wasn’t in the Tour as a result of doping allegations.
- Discovery Channel’s Directeur Sportif, Johan Bruyneel, has given his riders the direction that they are not to talk to L’Equipe, the French sports newspaper. One could reasonably assume that Bruyneel is punishing L’Equipe for being involved with the release of the doping allegations against Lance Armstrong last year. Or maybe that’s just my theory.
- Ivan Basso has apparently, on the advice of his attorneys, refused UCI president Pat McQuaid’s recommendation that all riders named in the “Operacion Puerto” investigation submit to a DNA test. His attorneys (and presumably the other riders’ attorneys as well) have not yet been given access to - let alone copies of - any of the evidence against him, and until they do it’s unlikely the UCI will be getting any of Basso’s DNA anytime soon.
Okay, folks, it’s beddy-bye time. See you in the morning.
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