Pantani -> Ricco. It continues

iainf72
iainf72 Posts: 15,784
edited April 2009 in Pro race
Reports are that Ricco is going to have a team formed around him next year with some cash from Mercatone Uno.
Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.

Comments

  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    I wonder if the likes of Manuela Ronchi are filling their boots, sorry advising on this healthy-sounding venture?

    Still, I shouldn't be so cynical, best wait for the detail. Maybe they'll outdo Vaughters and the Garmin boys with moves to keep it clean. They'll need to in order to have any credibility.
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    When I read things like that I wonder. If he was doing drugs(and he was) then the drugs
    must have helped hm(that's an assumption of mine)!!! Yet all things considered, he was basically a flash in the pan(so to speak). Or am I wrong there? So the "flash" was pretty much due to drugging? Now, someone wants to form a team around him, yet he will more than likely be "clean" and not able to "flash" like before? He would be just another rider(so to speak)?? Not meaning to put down any riders by saying that. Sooooooo...
    why would anyone want to "form" a team around him? Have him on the team, yes,
    but pin your hopes on him?? Have I been making any sense? Or am I just an idiot(as usual)?

    Dennis Noward
  • deal
    deal Posts: 857
    according to some reports I read at the time he was doping even as a juniour...maybe even Ricco himself does not know if he was ever any good without doping
  • Jez mon
    Jez mon Posts: 3,809
    dennisn wrote:
    When I read things like that I wonder. If he was doing drugs(and he was) then the drugs
    must have helped hm(that's an assumption of mine)!!! Yet all things considered, he was basically a flash in the pan(so to speak). Or am I wrong there? So the "flash" was pretty much due to drugging? Now, someone wants to form a team around him, yet he will more than likely be "clean" and not able to "flash" like before? He would be just another rider(so to speak)?? Not meaning to put down any riders by saying that. Sooooooo...
    why would anyone want to "form" a team around him? Have him on the team, yes,
    but pin your hopes on him?? Have I been making any sense? Or am I just an idiot(as usual)?

    Dennis Noward

    I wouldn't call him a flash in the pan. He put in a number of very good years and was still quite young for a cyclist. in 2007 he won a stage of the giro and came 6th overall, whilst riding as a domestique for Simoni, which is a good performance for a 23 year old. Then he put in two very strong performances in the giro and then in le tour, last year.
    You live and learn. At any rate, you live
  • winoneday
    winoneday Posts: 253
    I think the reason for calling him a flash in the pan is that his best performances came in the season where he was busted. It seems bizarre to base your whole team around someone who was artificially good. Having said that nothing is a surprise anymore is it...
  • nick hanson
    nick hanson Posts: 1,655
    Might be the old addage that drugs don't turn a donkey into a racehorse?
    Still,I for one won't be a fan of his
    so many cols,so little time!
  • timoid.
    timoid. Posts: 3,133
    There is a very strong belief that he has been doping since he was a junior (another Pantani similarity?). Anyone who thinks that he will ride clean is deluding themselves.

    If he was to do so he would suck.
    It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.
  • teagar
    teagar Posts: 2,100
    He'd be de-valueing my '98 mercatone uno replica jersey (with matching cotton cap) which my girlfriend bought me if he did!


    Noooooo!

    (It has particular resonance for some very boring personal reason by the way! It's not just because I'm a Pantani fan. Though I am. And I like the crazy late '90s styling...everyone will have it soon again)...
    Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.

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