Doctor Doctor: Michele Ferrari

by schmalz

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Here is a list of the cyclists who have worked with Dr. Ferrari—with sources. If you know of any others (and can provide a link for the source), let me know and I can add them to the list.

Rider

Years with Ferrari

On 1994
Gewiss team
with Ferrari as
team doctor

Association (other than coaching/training)

Sanctions

 

Moreno Argentin

 

X

 

 

Link

Lance Armstrong

1995-2004

 

 

 

Link

Evgeni Berzin

 

X

 

2000 – prevented from starting the Giro due to elevated hematocrit

Link

Vladislav Bobrik

 

X

 

 

Link

Gianluca Bortolami

 

 

 

2003 – Tested positive for cortisone , suspended for 6 months—admitted to the Italian prosecutor that the marks on his training program were coded reminders of when he should take EPO and steroids.

Link

Guido Bontempi

 

X

 

 

Link

Dario Bottaro

 

X

 

 

Link

Ermanno Brignoli

 

X

 

 

Link

Bruno Cenghialta

 

X

 

 

Link

Claudio Ciappucci

1997

 

Training files seized by Italian police at Ferrari’s home

 

Link

Mario Cipollini

 

 

 

 

Link

Carlo Colbalchini

 

 

 

 

Link

Gabriele Colombo

 

X

 

 

Link

Francesco Frattini

 

X

 

 

Link

Giorgio Furlan

 

X

 

 

Link

Giuseppe Gamba

 

X

 

 

Link

Ivan Gotti

 

 

 

 

Link

George Hincapie

 

 

Tested by Ferrari

 

Link

Floyd Landis

 

 

Tested by Ferrari

2007 – two year ban for an abnormally high testosterone/epitestosterone ratio

Link

Kevin Livingston

 

 

Training files seized by Italian police at Ferrari’s home

 

Link

Eddy Mazzoleni

 

 

 

2008 – two year ban for "Oil for Drugs" case

Link

Erwann Menthéour

 

 

 

1997 suspended for elevated hematocrit, later confessed to using EPO, amphetamines, and pot belge

Link

Axel Merckx

 

 

Training files seized by Italian police at Ferrari’s home

 

Link

Nicola Minali

 

X

 

 

Link

Francesco Moser

1983

 

 

In 1999 admitted blood doping, not illegal at the time

Link

Abraham Olano

 

 

 

 

Link

Bjarne Riis

 

X

 

Admitted winning the 1996 Tour De France while using EPO, HGH and cortisone.

Link

Michael Rogers

 

 

 

 

Link

Tony Rominger

1994

 

 

 

Link

Filippo Simeoni

1996-1997

 

 

1999 – suspended, admitted EPO use

Link

Patrik Sinkewitz

2006

 

 

2007 – suspended for testosterone

Link

Piotr Ugrumov

 

X

 

 

Link

Alexandre Vinokourov

 

 

 

2007 – suspended for homologous transfusion

Link

Alberto Volpi

 

X

 

 

Link

Enrico Zaina

 

X

 

 

Link

71 Comments

Matteo Rim

and your point is? this is so old, stupid, irrelevant, you are quoting as source Bicycling Magazine? A better approach would be convictions, sporting, criminal, or civil (governing body and court documents)…
Link Cecchini, Conconi, Sainz, Fuentes, the Belgians, the French, the Spanish, the Italians, the Germans, the Finns, the Austrians, the Swiss, the Danes, the Russians, the Chinese, the Americans, the Canadians, the Dominicans, the Colombians, the Australians, etc etc et cetera…
the entire Sport Drug Pharmaceutical Cartel…
in a word the Amgen Tour of California???
or is there something more sinister, like HUMAN F-N NATURE, or NATURE itself, to survive! to be “sufficiently competitive”…
Get over it and yourselves! Stick to testing derailleur pulleys and cartoons…

Jean Flange

Old, stupid, irrelevant? You are really naive. How is it old, stupid or irrelevant when one of those riders will head to this year’s Tour as one of the main contenders? That makes it extremely relevant, and to claim otherwise is plain daft.

NYvelocity is a great site and to suggest they stick to testing components and writing cartoons shows you either want to live in Happy-Clappy La La land, or else you have no problem with doping in sport.

Keep up the good work guys. Btw, Ferrari said in a recent interview that LA worked with him until 2005. Presuming he didn’t get confused with the dates (which I doubt), this means that LA lied when he said he’d broken off all associations in 2004.

Fredtastic

No AFLD at Le Tour this year…so this list might get bigger. And to the first poster: Fuck you, I like pulleys and cartoons.

Newbie

This may be common knowledge to some but many who read this site are still clueless about how prevelant doping in pro cycling (and sports) is or was. This topic is not only fair game but great stuff. Why haven’t other media ever done this?

Great stuff!

Mateo – your post essentially agrees with the sentiment of this article but then at the end you say “get over it and yourselves” – just accept criminal behavior and sporting fraud? Way to set high standards for yourself.

700x25

Nice work- I am sure many people (meaning bike racing fans) are aware of most of the notable associations with Dr. Dope, but I have not seen one layed out so nicely. Great reference tool.

Fredtastic

Prance,

Except for the triamcinolone in 99′ and those 6 pesky urine samples with syn r-EPO in them. Too bad the B samples are gone, otherwise people might think you’re a cheat. And no, I don’t believe in those types of miracles deeeeewwwwwwwwwsh bag.

objective observer

you are reposting known info and receiving and accepting kudos, but when I questioned Bunde and Charlie’s coverup you were all over me as a mofo. this is classic cheap hype! FUCK YOU!

Bored with it all

All the LA nut huggers won’t like the TRUTH you speak. hahahaha

ps – Cozy B is working overtime to 1 up the cartoon dudes.

Marchionne Headset

Schmalz, why do you keep beating a dead horse and rearing the ugly head of doping? Much progress has been made against doping in the last couple of years: UCI blood passport, more targeted profiling and testing, and more stringent whereabouts forms.

Instead of continually restating your dislike of Lance Armstrong, why don’t you profile and discuss riders who are riding clean and pushing the drug-free movement forward?

Rehashing this old subject is just like sawing saw dust. You are not getting anywhere or accomplishing anything.

Let’s look at the positive aspects of the sport: it’s beauty, its true heroes, and the locals who ride for the sake of riding and racing and not just a paycheck and two podium girls’ kisses.

Florian Crank

To get the full picture, you should include the associations of Drs. Conconi and Checchini. They have just as many “friends”.

Clueless

What about a look into Jared Bunde as the poster below stated? He’s much more local and anyone Dr. Ferrarri ever worked with. Where is Bunde’s apology to all of this and the letter he stated he was going to post?

If you are going to hit hard at the pros, then why don’t you also hit hard against people involved in our local racing scene.

objective observer

You all ask why why why?
Because this is the lowest common denominator and smalls and his dim minded ass ociates go for the easy numbers and reap the “benifits” lame as they are, hobnobbing with other half assed enabelers, discounted half assed equipment, and half assed attention!!

Fausto

You forgot Pantani.

Ferrari has said he “Coached” another rider to a Tour Victory besides Armstrong. Riis was working with Checcini when he won. Marco worked with Ferrari when he won the double.

schmalz

There were no links I could find between Pantani and Ferrari — if you know of any, you can post them.

ABC

Is he racing this year? I know he is working at NYC Velo and helps at the track but wonder if he is racing again. Seems like Mengoni has many new guys this year.

700x25

There was no mention on Pantani having any sort of tangible relationship in the Pantani biograpghy.

Maybe when he said that quote he meant “Grand Tours” not just “the” Tour- Rominger.

Mohamed Ergopower

Schmalz, why do you keep beating a dead horse and rearing the ugly head of doping? Much progress has been made against doping in the last couple of years: UCI blood passport, more targeted profiling and testing, and more stringent whereabouts forms. IT’S A GOOD POINT SCHMALZ. HISTORY SHOWS YOU CAN RELY ON THE UCI TO KEEP ON TOP OF THE DOPING PROBLEM AND I’M SURE IT’S COMPLETELY GONE AWAY NOW.

Instead of continually restating your dislike of Lance Armstrong, why don’t you profile and discuss riders who are riding clean and pushing the drug-free movement forward? MAYBE THINK ABOUT DOING SOME INTERVIEWS WITH RIDERS AND MANAGERS FROM A VOCALLY CLEAN TEAM. GARMIN MAYBE?

Let’s look at the positive aspects of the sport: it’s beauty, its true heroes. I THINK HEADSET IS ON TO SOMETHING. COULD THERE BE A GAP IN THE MARKET FOR A MAGAZINE OR WEBSITE THAT COVERS THE POSITIVE ASPECTS OF CYCLING? VELONEWS, PROCYCLING, CYCLE SPORT – ALL GREAT MAGAZINES, BUT SOMETIMES THEIR TIRELESS INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING OF THE DOPING PROBLEM GETS IN THE WAY OF THE RE-HASHED PRESS RELEASES THAT THE REAL FANS WANT TO READ.

Downtube Wingnuts

don’t piss in the soup everyone eats from…
when the soup is good, all is good…
50% is a speed limit
Bio-passport? Who has the visa’s for safe travel??? Who do I pay off? The UCI? IOC? WADA? AFLD? it all leads to “pre-crime”. How do you stop a flood with an umbrella?
money should be spent on education of health hazards, we all want “performance/health enhancement”, why can’t we do that w/o the dangers? Isn’t that sports medicine? The “pink elephant” is that we all the carbon/ceramic bs won’t do diddly compared to a healthy fit athlete, eating optimally, resting, all the resources available, otherwise, we all ahve to sign on to the “whereabouts” system? F- that!!!
The naive believe in fairy tales, the realist stays in reality…miracles are for hypocrites…

wow

Re:Mohamed
In case you didn’t notice NYVC does do interviews with the riders and teams you list great one with very little mentin of doping. Nobody is covering this stuff and you act like everyone is! So much so that you are sick of it. “Much progress” only a grand tour runner up and half a dozen riders were busted in 2009 – yeah – great progress!

re: objective observer
Why do you bother to come on this site, every week, just to insult the owners? You contribute nothing, just insults, what;s funny is that if this site is half as lame as you say it is but yet here you are every week coming back and reading and posting… Look inside yourself…

mikeweb

I guess someone didn’t get your joke that everyone else in here got.

All I can say is “like, wow, man…”

Ridolfo Bottle

can we get some fun, classic nyvc arguments going on?
who is going to be a sandbagger this season? any gs mengoni gossip?
secrets are no fun unless they are shared with everyone

Gomer

1. This is simply a list…the site never said that folks who are on the list are dopers. You claim the site is harping on doping, but this is simply the names of folks who went to this rather sketchy physician who is a well-known proponent of EPO.

2. All that said, isn’t this list interesting?!! Look at the names of folks who we never associate with doping who went to the doctor. It’s the mass cycling media who likes to keep focusing on the “dirty” riders…the easy targets who have been stripped of titles. Meanwhile, plenty of more cyclists are suspect. Why not give the scapegoats a break, and give NYVelocity credit for looking under more rocks than SI and VeloNews will ever?

Karma Krank

You’ve succumed to bandwagon rehash…ad nauseum.

Show some balls and report on your own backyard, if you dare.

Siebe Ziptie

all ferrari’s make sweet music. except the dino. that was kind of like the sound of a cat 4 thrust into a pro race. lotta wheezing, underpowered.

West Coast Reader

You’re telling me the great dopers did not go through Ferrari! Where’s VDB! The whole TVM Team! Raimondas Rumsas, Geneviève Jeanson (the little Maple tasting girl), Dario Frigo, Tammy Thomas (or was it Tommy?), Richard Virenque and the Festina Team! There are so many and none are Ferrari customers… I mean clients! Ferrari must be mad he didn’t get those magic fee’s from them as well, maybe he wouldn’t have to help the local Cat 5’s with his website if he did get those top dopers.

And! The Simpson’s have done all possible episodes so of course this is a repeat or rearing of an ugly head.

Now to incorporate the Midi-Clorians into the UCI test bed… then we’d have something to go on!

meh

no no no, genevieve jeanson cannot have doped. didn’t you read the last two slides of that “history of lance’s doping” link? after detailing lance’s doping and general dickishness, the report goes on to make the air-tight conclusion that since lance and floyd played dirty, therefore women don’t cheat, and there is simply no place for the Y chromosome in the future of cycling.

Fausto

In the Book “Lance Armstrong’s War” Ferrari admitted he had “coached” another rider to victory in the Tour de France. He said that it was not publicly know and he had not even told Lance about it.

Riis worked with Checcini, Indurain with Conconi and Sabino Padilla. The only rider it could have been would be Pantani.

In the book “The Death of Marco Pantani” his program and who ran it is not discussed, in fact Rendell was not able to track down who his doctor was during his Giro-Tour double.

pussy galore

please interview the locals that have been “busted” and ask them if they are sorry, or just happy to be back, time served…
Bunde?
Pulla?
Gerry?
does B12 plus Iron injection count???
then probably several teams too…
“Promoter” must know a thing or 20 about the “Program”…

There are plenty of locals that do “altitude”…

Nicolas Internal Routing

2.14, i fuckin love the armstrong ad right next to the whole armstrong doping article.
can someone say… irony?

I trust El Pais

Far be it from me to question El Pais, but can it really be that the name of the South Australian Minister of Tourism is “Janet J-Lo Lomax-Smith”?

700x25

Fausto, thank you for the notation- I will have to go back and re-read it again now.

West Coast rider- yawn…..

Loic Brakepad

Pro cycling. Fuck “All My Children” and “As the World Turns”. These are real life people. Athletes we wish we could be, breaking our hearts and doing despicable and illegal things in order to get money, love, respect and awards. I can’t take my eyes of the drama and neither can you.

Rather than bitch and moan about the state of cycling, just accept that there will always be mobsters breaking the law and G-Men out to nab them. Cat vs. Mouse. Spy Vs. Spy. Love it!!!

Besides the UCI has the Best G-Men going. FIFA knows all the soccer stars implicated in Puerto, but are more the most powerful sports entity on the planet Earth. Baseball? Bud Selig dreamed of a “Chicks dig the long ball” HR derby. American Football. hahahahahah! At least Pro cycling is the best of the rest in trying to do something and I’m loving the battle for good vs. Evil. It must be working. At this time two years ago I was concerned there might not be a pro Tour as we know it. Now we have the luxury of having teams we love (Garmin) and teams we love to hate (Radio Shack, Sky)

Really people, who would of that the sport would be on such firm ground two years ago. The Passport may not be perfect (what is) but damn it’s brought respect back to the sport and the war for Good vs. Evil is on it’s way this year.

Hooray!

Gomer

Ah, yes, blame it on a supplement you took. Hey, someone with that excuse COULD be innocent…but what was the supplement? Is DHEA in Gatorade, PowerBars, Accelerade, Endurox? Is it in any of the EAS products? They had some problems with Hammer products, but that was cleared up. The point is if you are a pro athlete, or even an amateur competitor, know what you are putting in you body.

And the bottom line, as we know, is that the actual name of the supplement is rarely forthcoming!

Beevis

good point Gomer, all of us that care a bit know EXACTLY the brand and listed ingredients of every supplement we take. It’s so obvious when athletes get caught and spit out their rehearsed lines. They’re so within the daily routine they fail to think out of the box. The fans being more outside the box, either see through the lines and loose interest or accept it as part of the game.

curious george

DHEA itself is of little or no benifit. Was it part of testosterone doping which didn’t trigger a positive? Was he stupid enough to use something knowingly which has little to no effect? Or was it part of some supplement which he picked up one time and doesn’t remember?

Richard Veronkadonk

I did many bad things in my career, but J-Lo was not one of them. Even I am not crazy enough to mess with Aussie chicks.

Dong Work For Yuda

I’d like another beer please. Let me open it.

Ferrari’s clients must not be too bright, getting busted with such regularity. Well, except Lance. Yet.

Hey, we can jam in Joe’s Garage!

80's pro

Where are all the cyclists from the 80’s other than Moser?
Another LeMond “there was no blood doping/epo use in the 80’s” article.

We go from Moser in 83 to Ciappucci in 90

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