of another thing wrong with our sport. Below is a photo Ivan Stevic. He came over to the US quite a few years ago and “raced”. By that I mean that we sometimes could ride around with him. He was completely, obviously supercharged. Finally it came out that he was facing a lifetime ban from a raid in Italy where he was found to be distributing drugs. Now here he is racing in China. I thought we’d seen the last of him. Must of “slipped” through the cracks.
This celebration got him thrown out of The Tour de Qinghai Lake in China this week.
God, how many more egomaniacs do we need in this sport!! Yuck! Send him packing!
Glad to hear he got bounced for his “victory salute”.
I believe it’s the frontal lobe of the brain that’s responsible for conscience and rational thinking. Maybe Stevic was so unfortunate to be born without that?
I remember racing against him several years ago at TriPeaks and Joe Martin. Those races were some of my first experiences with professionals and I was so impressed with their strengths. Only to find out later the guys winning were doping (Bergman and Stevic). What a disappointment, not only did I feel cheated but I lost a lot of respect for the sport in general. Lame to see him still taking up a spot on a team.
Should be in prison IMO… but CONI let this one slip through the cracks and hasn’t fought his appeal
It might be helpful to figure out who sponsors the guy, he’s got a lot of logos and sponsor names on his jersey … and let *them* know exactly what kind of rider they’re associating their company with.
His team is based in Serbia (http://www.cyclingfever.com/team.html?team_idd=NzY3MQ==) so not sure how much luck you’d have with the sponsors. The site still lists Ivan as winner of the stage.
Steve,
I think what you are asking for is the UCI to consistently enforce their PED policies. Not going to happen.
The rumor is the bio passport has flagged at least one celebrity-status rider this year and the UCI has denied the request for more testing on that rider.
USAC’s history of benign neglect of domestic racing has benefits. Human-scale performances and generally dramatic racing. Hopefully one day, some of those races will be produced and broadcast.
I think hes only banned by CONI and therefore his ban is only valid in Italy.