Basso Out Again?

Ivan Basso's chances of competing in the Tour de France could be destroyed by his implication in the Spanish doping affair. Both Basso and Ullrich were some of the first to be caught in the 2006 Tour De France’s doping scandal.


The UCI's bid to get to the bottom of the affair was boosted recently when a DNA test matched blood found in Fuentes' Madrid laboratory with Ullrich, who has claimed he is innocent and since retired from the sport. “It proved a turning point for newly-installed Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme, who is determined to avoid the kind of controversy which deflated 2006's edition before it had even started.”


After being cleared by the Italian sports authorities of any wrongdoing, Basso - last year's Tour of Italy champion - was released by his team, CSC. He later joined the former team of Lance Armstrong, Discovery Channel, and normally the Italian would be saddling up as a hot favorite for this year's Tour de France, which begins July 7 in France. One question I have is why Basso was let go by team CSC if he was cleared of all charges, did CSC know the truth?
Prudhomme is having a meeting with managers of pro-cycling teams including Discovery Channel's Johan Bruyneel, April 25. He hopes the team managers will "do what is right for the good of the sport."


"We will only get to the end of this if we all work in unison," stated the Frenchman, wanting to work closely with UCI and the World Anti Doping Agency. "Before that happens, we will know how to deal with it," he said. "The Tour was sullied last year, and that won't happen again."


This is an example of public relations because strong willed people are standing up to doping and want all the fans to be informed on what is happening. By informing the cycling fans about who who is doping and what is being done with the one's caught, Christian Prudhomme has made it on Cycling Andrews’s “Honest” Cycling List.”



http://www.bicycling.com/article/1,6610,s1-3-9-15898-1,00.html