Former Swiss rider Tony Rominger has denied his management company has links to what Italian investigators believe is a network designed to finance doping, aid tax evasion and launder money.
Italian officials are investigating sports doctor Michele Ferrari’s activities in the wake of a report by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) which accused him of overseeing a widespread doping programme involving Lance Armstrong.
Armstrong, who has been banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France wins, is said in the dossier to be Ferrari’s most famous client while at the peak of his powers as the physician worked with the Texan’s US Postal Service cycling team.
Two Swiss newspapers on Monday alleged that cash from Ferrari’s operations went through through Rominger’s management company but the former Tour of Spain winner strenuously denied the claims.
“Tony Rominger formally contests these accusations of tax evasion and money laundering being reported in the media,” he said in a statement, which appeared in the newspapers carrying the allegations.
Rominger, who won three consecutive Vuelta a Espana from 1992 and also a single Giro d’Italia title in 1995, added that he had had no contact with Ferrari for “very many years”.
He also had “never been called upon to provide information to the penal, civil or administrative judicial system — either Swiss or Italian”.
Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport reported earlier this month that a widescale Italian investigation into Ferrari’s activities had opened a “Pandora’s Box” of dubious business practices involving money laundering through various European countries.
The Gazzetta said several riders, their agents and bank directors were caught up in the investigation.
Cavendish aiming for yellow on 100th Tour
British rider Mark Cavendish said in an interview published on Monday that he hopes to end the opening stage of next year’s 100th Tour de France in the race leader’s coveted yellow jersey.
“I’ve worn the leader’s jersey in the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana, so it would be nice to complete the set,” the former world champion, who at the end of this season leaves Team Sky for Omega Pharma-Quickstep, told The Times newspaper.
Cavendish, 27, has won 23 stages on the Tour de France and will wear the Belgian team’s colours when cycling’s most celebrated race visits the Mediterranean island of Corsica for the first time next year. The flat 212km run from Porto-Vecchio to Bastia on June 29 is seen as perfect for sprinters such as Cavendish, who in 2011 was the world road race champion and has won the final Tour stage on the Champs Elysees for the last four years in succession.
Cavendish told the daily that next year’s Tour will show “every good aspect” of cycling, which is battling to recover from the fall-out of the Lance Armstrong doping scandal that has shattered its reputation.
The Isle of Man rider, however, echoed the views of his current team-mate and compatriot, 2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, by saying it was unfair to imply that all professional cyclists took banned substances. “Since I turned pro, I’ve not seen anything that suggests it’s (cycling’s) not clean. I’m riding clean and winning the biggest bike races in the world and I’m actually not that good,” he was quoted as saying.
