Leonardo Bertagnolli (Lampre-ISD) in the time trial.
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Bertagnolli confessed to working with Ferrari while at Liquigas in 2007
Documents released by USADA reveal the important role of Italian police in the investigation into doping, with Padua-based public prosecutor Benedetto Roberti and his officers uncovering details of the huge financial payments between Lance Armstrong, other riders and Dr Michele Ferrari.
Police also uncovered evidence of Kevin Livingston’s visits to Dr Ferrari and of email exchanges between Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel and Stefano Ferrari – Dr Ferrari’s son, who managed the financial and business aspects of his father’s activities.
Some of the most damning Italian evidence against Dr Ferrari comes from a detailed confession by Leonardo Bertagnolli. In a sworn statement, he told police how Ferrari told him to take EPO and how to blood dope, despite him suffering with a thyroid problem.
Italian police tapped phones and seemed to have planted listening devices on Bertagnolli as he visited Dr Ferrari for tests and doping advice. Bertagnolli rode for Lampre-ISD this year but retired in June after the UCI requested the opening of an anti-doping investigation based on information provided by his biological passport. Following the USADA revelations, Bertagnolli has been summoned for questioning in Rome by the Italian Anti-Doping Procura on October 16.
In his statement given to Italian police on May 11, 2011, Bertagnolli said he started working with Dr Ferrari in 2007 after getting permission from Roberto Amadio and Roberto Corsetti – his team manager and team doctor at the Liquigas team at the time. He agreed to pay Ferrari 12,000 Euro a year.
Pellizotti, Kreuziger, Gasparotto, Chicchi
Bertagnolli claimed in his statement that Dr Ferrari explained how to avoid testing positive for EPO by taking micro doses of the drug injected into a vein while at an altitude training camp in St Moritz. He claimed that numerous of his Liquigas teammates from 2007 also worked with Dr Ferrari.
“We talked about it between us and the team knew: Pellizotti, Kreuziger, Gasparotto, Chicchi,” the statement reads. “I remember that in 2007 I also saw Popovych and Bileka.”
Bertagnolli also detailed how Ferrari explained how to blood dope following the introduction of the
To read the whole story, visit here: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cyclingnews/news/~3/CHJyaYL9Rr4/story01.htm
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