31 replies to this topic Post Order

[Puncheur]

A lil' bizarre, but possible.


Controversial Kazakhstan cyclist Alexandre Vinokourov on Wednesday hit back at claims he bought his 2010 victory in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day classic.

Swiss magazine L’Illustre has alleged that ‘Vino’ — a Tour de France stage winner who won Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2005 and has served a two-year ban for doping — made a 100,000-euro ($134,000) payment to Russian Alexandr Kolobnev to secure his second win.

The report, based on an exchange of emails between the two racers dating back to the day after the race, alleged Vinokourov, 38, made the payment to ensure that Kolobnev did not push him to the line in a sprint finish between the pair.

Questioned by the magazine, Vinokourov, who retired in the summer having originally said he was retiring at the end of 2007, said he had simply offered Kolobnev a loan and denied any wrongdoing.

“I never did that in my career – I always fought to win,” he said Tuesday.

A day later Vinokourov insisted he would clear his name: “I can’t accept gossiping about me.”

From bicycling.com

Edited by ' Dale, 09 December 2011 - 10:45 .

[Tiny K]

Sheesh! If it isn't doping, it's race fixing! Donner!

[Puncheur]

Tiny K, on 09 December 2011 - 08:44 , said:

Sheesh! If it isn't doping, it's race fixing! Donner!

Yeah, Tiny K...

It can open a can of worms and raise millions of questions about other results.

[Pieterg]

[Slowbee]

ok, so the question is, if the emails were between the two of them, how did the "reporter" get hold of them ?

another hacking saga ?

[Azonic]

This doesn't give the full article. Vino said he finds it funny how this comes out right before he stands for his countries next elections. As in a smear compaign. But ja, Kolobnev must just come out and say yes it was so, or no it wasn't so.

[Puncheur]

Kolobnev was the only positive doping result in the TdF 2011.

Hmm...

[Gerhardc]

Vino, can I also get a 100,000 Euro loan????.........PLEASE!!!

[touristvisa]

this is nothing new though, right?

paying for victories used to be de rigeur in kermesse racing

[nochain]

Don't really understand this? What would it help to try and pay off one rider before a event?
You have no control what so ever over the other 200 with as much as at least 5 to 10 riders that on the day could be the strongest...

What I would believe is if he was in a break with the other rider and made a deal on the road, that would make sense.

['Kaze Pete]

Cycling is a team sport. Team of riders are paid for the leader to win.
So how does this differ? Is it wrong as the alleged payment was made to an outside party, and not an insider?

[Puncheur]

Gerhardc, on 09 December 2011 - 09:25 , said:

Vino, can I also get a 100,000 Euro loan????.........PLEASE!!!

[Lucky Luke.]

nochain, on 09 December 2011 - 09:57 , said:

Don't really understand this? What would it help to try and pay off one rider before a event?
You have no control what so ever over the other 200 with as much as at least 5 to 10 riders that on the day could be the strongest...

What I would believe is if he was in a break with the other rider and made a deal on the road, that would make sense.

Vino and Kolobnev were away in a 2 man break - the implication is that a deal was struck on the road and settled afterwards with payment confirmation by email.

Kolobnev was on 500k / year at the time and the purse for LBL is 20k .. so 100k is perhaps a little cheap for a monument but seems feasible. There was no guarantee Kolobnev would have won so he may have thought, well I'll take the 100k as a sure thing.

[TNT1]

Gerhardc, on 09 December 2011 - 09:25 , said:

Vino, can I also get a 100,000 Euro loan????.........PLEASE!!!

Are you in a position to gift him a Monument?

[nochain]

Lucky Luke., on 09 December 2011 - 10:44 , said:

Vino and Kolobnev were away in a 2 man break - the implication is that a deal was struck on the road and settled afterwards with payment confirmation by email.

Kolobnev was on 500k / year at the time and the purse for LBL is 20k .. so 100k is perhaps a little cheap for a monument but seems feasible. There was no guarantee Kolobnev would have won so he may have thought, well I'll take the 100k as a sure thing.

Thanks,that does make sense!!I could not remember what happened in the race.

[Lucky Luke.]