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Eurosport - Thu, 17 Jul 12:16:00 2008
Double stage winner Riccardo Ricco has sent the Tour de France into another major doping scandal after testing positive for the blood booster EPO.
The brash Italian climber, who won stages six and nine in summit finishes, tested positive for the illegal drug during the fourth stage individual time trial in Cholet the French anti-doping agency announced.
Ricco is the third rider to test positive for EPO (erythropoietin) at this year's event after Spaniards Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado.
"It's for the same product as the other two," AFLD president Pierre Bordry told Reuters.
But the 24-year-old Saunier Duval man is by far the biggest name of the three, having finished second in this year's Tour of Italy and dominated the mountain stages through the first week of the Grande Boucle.
The rider, nicknamed the Cobra, had already *****ily predicted he would claim victory on the stage six uphill finish at Super-Besse, a promise he delivered upon, as well as guaranteeing a stage victory in next week's fabled L'Alpe-D'Huez stage.
Ricco had not been informed of the positive doping test when the AFLD made the announcement public.
The latest doping scandal is a new black eye for the biggest race in the sport, which had hoped to recover from two successive years of outrages involving performance enhancing drugs.
In 2006 Tour winner Floyd Landis was stripped of his yellow jersey after testing positive for heightened levels of adrenaline.
Last year's race was also marred by a drugs scandal when then overall leader Michael Rasmussen was kicked out of the Tour for failing to inform his Rabobank team of his whereabouts for out-of-racing tests and overall favourite Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping.
This is sttupid a guy that has a good future in cycling f's himself up
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Well do I get my money now on Valverde for coming 2nd in that stage?  There was always suspicions weren't there 
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__Raf__ wrote:Well do I get my money now on Valverde for coming 2nd in that stage? There was always suspicions weren't there Lol didnt think it would be ricco
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jeez thats a shock. and a disappointment. should've guessed he was going to cheat cos he's italian
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What an AIDS-infested monkey.
You'd have to be bonkers to 'roid/EPO/testosterone up given how red hot they've been on drug cheats.
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and according to the official tour de france site the whole saunier-duval team has withdrawn
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----- - The latest update is that Saunier Duval have withdrawn from this year's race! The team was at the start line with the rest of the peloton moments ago, and in a surreal display the riders were obviously informed and left the start line!
eurosport
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Whatever happened to integrity, not just in sport, but life itself? No person worth their salt could, in good conscience, just go and inject shit into their arm to get an unfair leg-up. People who do that are maggots.
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What happens if you went on Ricco for KOM? Do they get owned or get their money back?
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__Raf__ wrote:What happens if you went on Ricco for KOM? Do they get owned or get their money back? PWNED
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You sure? I didn't get on him btw...
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Oh... then I'm not sure.
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Best thing about this is these fooking cheats face 5yrs in jail under French law.
The Frogs are serious about getting the juiceheads out of the game.
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Every year.....EVERY YEAR......I get sucked in by a remarkable performance only to find out days later that I had lost a night's sleep admiring a drug cheat. I even had the missus interested after he won a stage the other night, now she just says "Turn it off, they're all drug cheats".
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BrucefromBalnarring wrote:Every year.....EVERY YEAR......I get sucked in by a remarkable performance only to find out days later that I had lost a night's sleep admiring a drug cheat. I even had the missus interested after he won a stage the other night, now she just says "Turn it off, they're all drug cheats". obviously no australian is never was never will be at least continue cheering on cadel
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They aren't all drug cheats.
This one hurts though with the way this guy was riding. I was they would get life bans for cheating, drives me up the wal they don't.
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Don't worry, I'll keep watching and keep hoping and keep barracking etc. But this happened last year as well, might have been Vinikourov? Someone rode an amazing stage that just had me in awe, only to find out that he had cheated. I just hate wasting my admiration. The other night the missus watched with me for the first time and was right into Ricco's solo effort. She was in awe. Now she's just not interested. Must learn from that, no second chances for me 
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I will kepp watching and still remain interested but there will always be slight doubt in the winner and that is sad. It is a great event but with that doubt there it loses some of it's attractiveness.
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I wonder if they took notice of his 'medical certificate' for his raised levels....the average level of oxygen in the blood is 46 or something and the tour draws the line at 50. Ricco has claimed that since his childhood he has had raised levels, somewhere around 51/52...so did they get that result or something higher? Doesnt say....
Still bloody stupid but that just means that now I watch the tour for Cadel only and to see Voight and Cancellara driving the peloton lol
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cheating f**ker!
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