Johan Bruyneel talked with Roberto Amadio at the start of the Amstel Gold Race 2008.
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Amadio and Guercilena admit that more can be done to fight doping
Twenty-four hours after the publication of a ‘Manifesto for Credible Cycling’ by a number of major European newspapers, Italian team managers Roberto Amadio (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Luca Guercilena (RadioShack-Nissan-Trek) have supported the proposals, insisting that cycling has cleaned up its act in recent years.
Both Amadio and Guercilena attended the meeting of the AIGCP – the Association International des Groupes Cyclistes Professionels, in Paris on Tuesday, where the association called for an independent commission to investigate and analyse the anti-doping measures across the sport.
Team managers are rarely held responsible for doping offences in their teams, but are now under intense pressure from sponsors following the devastating effects of the USADA investigation into Lance Armstrong and doping in the US Postal Service Team.
Amadio is a member of the UCI WorldTour Professional Cycling Council, representing the teams. He raced as a professional between 1985 and 1989 and then worked as a directeur sportif with the Jolly Componibili, Aki, Vini Caldirola and the Liquigas team in 2000 and 2001. Davide Rebellin and Serhiy HonÄar both rode for the team. Amadio became team manager of the current Liquigas team in 2005 and will manage the Cannondale Pro Cycling Team in 2013.
“All the initiatives that help improve things have to be considered carefully, investigated and taken forward,” Liquigas-Cannondale team manager Roberto Amadio told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“We agree with the idea of an independent committee and for anti-doping controls that are given to WADA. Increasing the length of bans for doping are also ok: there’s nothing wrong with that. We’ll accept any rules by those who govern us.”
“I’m optimistic because there’s been a huge change in the peloton. The manifesto seems to contain a correct message but more for the past than the present. We shouldn’t forget that huge advances in prevention have been done thanks to the introduction of the Biological Passport and the whereabouts programme in 2008.”
The manifesto for credible
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