Just FYI, the Guardia Civil has just trawled up yet another doping ring in Spain. About a dozen suspects arrested, included doctors and pharmacists from Barcelona, Valencia, Murcia and Granada.

No Cyclists implicated (yet ), but one of the arrested doctors is Walter Viro, formerly employed by Kelme. A search of his clinic in Valencia allegedly turned up doping products.

Until they get serious about that stuff or everyone involved retires OP and things connected to it will still keep cropping up.

Walter Viru?

Interesting, very interesting.

Yet another Spanish Doping Ring... and... Yet another connection to you-know-who (aka HWMNBN) from our good old friend Jesus Manzano (L'Equipe 5 June 2007):

The owner of this clinic, a renowned hemotologist, called Walter Viru, who is one of the doctors for Kelme to alert them the day before the uci vampires were coming to take the samples from the cyclist. And he did the same thing with Del Moral, the doctor for the U.S. Postal team and then Discovery, a good friend of his.

Oddly, though (?) (Manzano: "When I talk about the mafia, I don't use this word lightly") the above quoted article is not available online at L'Equipe anymore, but was fortuitously copied and preserved by a contributor to bikeradar (http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=15622934):

http://www.multriman.com/news/riendechange.pdf

Maybe it is just my bad memory, but did anyone recall anything about tip-offs to Lance, Bruyneel & co Astana on when the "uci vampires were coming to take the samples" in this past year's Tour?

Perhaps LeMond can use the Manzano article, and the new activities of Viru, at the upcoming Trek trial.

Ok, ok, maybe we have been over this before, but didn't HWMNBN used to live in Spain, the land of the ever-blooming doping clinic?

My Girona

...the professional cyclist. Every winter, 10 to 15 of them—including five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong—descend on Girona

I guess we could describe that as some sort of re-infusion.

Dave.

This does get a little tiresome after a while.

Different year, same story.

The doping culture just rolls along. McQuaid is proud of himself, myths are perpetuated, opportunists line their pockets, the athletes continue to dope and deny, the apologists cling to their blindness.

Move along, nothing new here.

Nothing new?

http://www.reuters.com/article/olympicsNew...E5AO0JG20091125

Doping in Spain, Europe's current sport powerhouse. Could its dominance be linked to drugs?

Shocked; just absolutely shocked...

Of course when I say nothing new I mean yet another doping scandal followed by cover-ups, denials and lies and no lessons learned.

Business as usual.

Dave.

Yes, business as usual. With all the money sloshing around in pro sports, it is big business.

Funny how this seems to taint the ethics of sport.

All my favorites so far have turned out to be big time dopers, so I shouldn't be surprised by any announcements. But I really hope Javier Ochoa isn't involved in this latest scandal. According to CN, the Spanish press are tossing his name about.

+1 on ochoa, that would make me a little sad too.

Racewalking implicated:

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-spor...al-1956026.html