According to Team CSC’s blog, Gilberto Simoni has retracted his earlier statements where he accused Giro d’Italia champ Ivan Basso of trying to bribe him to let Simoni win the penultimate stage of this year’s Giro. The full story (such as it is, without links) is here.

Ah, here’s more of the story. And there’s more to it, which I hadn’t heard elsewhere - Simoni might be facing sanctions for “bringing the sport into disrepute” because of his statements and could receive a fine or a suspension. The latter would obviously keep him out of the Tour, and though he’s never had any real success there, it would be a blow.

I ask you - what other sport levels fines and suspensions for “bringing the sport into disrepute”? Now if we could just get rid of doping, we’d have something pretty outstanding here.

Update: Basso is apparently going to give his side of things to the Italian Cycling Federation as well… Stay tuned…