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Second Edition News for May 11, 2001Recent results and new features CSC keeps its place in the Tour de FranceBy Gerard Knapp
CSC World Online was one of the surprise recipients of a wildcard selection for this year's Tour and Cyclingnews understands that the expulsion of the team was discussed at the highest level of the Société du Tour de France after Hamburger's positive, the first for the EPO urine test introduced by the UCI on April 1. "An isolated case shouldn't put in doubt a team's qualification for the Tour de France,'' Philippe Sudres, spokesman for race organisers, told Darren Tulett from Bloomberg News. The Société's new selection criteria is said to place new emphasis on the ethics and conduct of a team, and it set a precedent in 1999 when it sacked the Italian Vini Caldirola squad from that year's Tour de France after Urkainian rider Sergueï Honchar failed a blood test at the 1999 Tour de Suisse. "Honchar was the major rider in their team,'' Sudres told Bloomberg. "It's not the same." However, Hamburger has previously been a team leader in the Tour de France. In the 1999 edition of le Tour, Vini Caldirola was replaced by another Italian squad, Cantina Tollo-Alexia Alluminio. Ironically, the leader of Cantina Tollo that year was none other than Danish rider Bo Hamburger, the centre of the latest controversy, a former stage winner and wearer of the maillot jaune. Hamburger was also the silver medallist at the 1997 World Championships and a former winner of the Fleche Wallonne in 1998. Last week the Société created massive controversy when it announced its final wildcard selections for this year's Tour de France, which includes eight French teams and five which are Division 2. Teams not given a start in this year's Tour included Saeco and Mercatone Uno, as well as the emerging Mercury-Viatel team from the US. Back in 1999, the Société was particularly sensitive to any kind of drug scandal following on from the dramatic events of 1998. At the time, Jean Marie LeBlanc said the entire Vini Caldirola squad was dismissed because Honchar was the team leader, and it was too close to the start of the Tour. However, this was rejected by the then team manager of Vini Caldirola, Roberto Amadio, who said: "It isn't correct that Honchar would have been our team leader in this year's Tour de France. Our top rider for the Tour was going to be Francesco Casagrande." But further complicating matters for Vini Caldirola at the time was that apart from Honchar, Casagrande had been suspended for nine months after testing positive for steroid use while at Cofidis the previous year. It was argued that as Honchar exceeded a hematocrit of 50 per cent, the whole team should be excluded, even though it was not a positive test of doping. On the same day Honchar was tested, the Austrian rider Harald Morscher (Saeco) and two others were also above 50 per cent (and subsequently ejected from the Swiss race), but the Saeco team was still allowed to start in that year's Tour. Leblanc said that Honchar was the team leader while Morscher was only a worker. Leblanc said: "He should not even have been selected for the Saeco's tour team," he said. Critics also pointed out that Mercatone Uno was allowed to start even though their then team leader Marco Pantani was thrown out of the Giro with an excessive red blood cell count. The press release issued by the Société in June 1999 stated: "The Tour rules stipulate that the organisers can prevent a team from participating for a number of reasons. The Vini Caldirola team has been refused entry to the race. The leader of the team Ukrainian Sergueï Honchar is unable to ride for 15 days after being expelled from the Tour de Suisse." Also on Cyclingnews: Just a wee chance of catching EPO users The UCI's new rules explained
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