Velonews/Cyclingnews, etc. reported today that Jeannie Longo’s husband, Patrice Ciprelli, bought some EPO from Joe Papp. That is not a good thing.
This story bothers me for a variety of reasons. One is feeling bad for Jeannie. I have known her forever and I have witnessed her doing incredible feats for decades. Way before these oxygen carrying drugs came on the market.
The 2nd is, that it is my opinion, that everyone that Joe has named so far has turned up to be “guilty” of purchasing EPO.
3rd is, why Patrice would need to purchase EPO from Joe Papp here in the United States.
But the real problem I have with this is Joe’s statement that Ciprelli said it was for Jeannie – “Papp said: “I sold EPO to Ciprelli around this time. He contacted our website and specifically asked how much it would cost for 80,000 iu of EPO to be sent to France. He mentioned it was for his wife.” That doesn’t make any sense at all. None. I don’t know Patrice, but I have to say that I don’t know anyone that is stupid enough to be buying drugs from someone and telling them the drugs are for someone as famous as Jeannie Longo.
So I’m in a quandary here. Obviously, we don’t have all the facts. But I’ve come to the conclusion that Joe’s list is accurate. But the statement that Joe said that Patrice bought it for his wife makes the whole thing seem ridiculous. That one statement alone makes the whole thing suspect. I’m hoping it is.
Say it aint' so Jeannie.
jeanie happened to come to the MN state tt one year.. i think she was using the Blaine track as training for a similar track at worlds.. anyway, she did the tt and was passed by a friend of mine at the 20k turn around on the out n back 40k course.. she promtly jumped on his wheel and not only drafted to the finish but attacked him in the last mile. once a cheater always a cheater.. she seemed really nice though!
Steve – I agree that it doesn’t exactly pass the ‘sniff’ test. In other words, it smells bad. One problem with today’s lack of journalistic scrutiny is that quite often news like this hits the web without confirmation of sources and so much is hearsay.
So for now, let’s just take it with a grain of salt and respect Jeannie for all she has done for so very long.
It was so great to see her racing in Aspen and at the reunion dinner in Vail.
I’ll leave it at that for now.
This would be very depressing if true.
why is Papp always the electronic gadfly with these things? Dropping hints all over and running to post on cyclingnews as soon as his name is brought up. If we type his name 3 times will he make a comment here? Boggles my mind. You get your 29er wheels figured out yet?
Ya, I thought the same thing about Joe saying that the husband said “it was for his wife.” Of course I don’t think anybody would have expected Joe to turn over all of his sales records over to the authorities either. Joe surely had the motivation to turn over all that stuff (ie reduced prison term), but does he have any motivation to lie about this?
me thinks she bought it for her husband, so he could train with her … wanted to protect his fragile male hyper ego ….
Obviously I know nothing of what actually happened or whether she is clean or not.
Having said that, I always wondered how a MUCH older woman could consistently beat much younger world class women so consistently. Doesn’t happen that way for men. Ask Lance.
Plus the fact that she disappears for periods of time, comes back, and just crushes everyone.
The Papp thing is that he is just the messenger (although a really slimy one). I raced against him years ago and never thought very much of him then. Now I think even less of him knowing that even on his best day, he was a cheat.
Guy’s a maroon, stupid as dirt, and hopefully as vain as Ms Angeles implies.
I don’t know how health insurance coverage works for cyclist in Europe. At least in the US, you can get FDA approved EPO almost free with prescription (health insurance pays for it). But you need to be really sick. Why would you buy EPO from China (and probably the one that is illegal)?
@Nancy – they get it from China because they can get it without prescriptions and paper trails. Of course, if it’s from China, it might be of remarkably poor quality, like the dog food which killed hundreds of dogs and was found to be heavily adulterated with toxic wastes and clay