I received an email a couple days ago telling me about Ivan Stevic and how he is on the roster to race the Elite men’s road race here in Richmond. I thought to myself, “How is this possible?” I knew that Stevic was still racing, but though that he was sort of flying under the radar. I assumed the lifetime ban he received from C.O.N.I., (the Italian doping agency) would apply worldwide. I even had a PDF file showing his lifetime ban.
But, that isn’t the case. I guess he appealed his ban and received a two year suspension that was applied from 2008 to 2010 I guess. That is according to an article I just read. This is a link and it goes over Stevic’s exploits way better than I have any time doing. You should read it.
I don’t like the guy. I’ve written about him before. Here is a post from over 4 years ago. He was arrogant when he raced here in the US. When he was winning the Nature Valley Grand Prix, he was so supercharged he was sweating EPO. When we were racing the Stillwater Criterium, he was riding up the hill, which is over 20% grade, spinning like 120 rpms beside me. He casually pulls a Powerbar out of his pocket and rides no handed opening it and proceeds to eat it. This is when the other 40 guys, out of 120 starters, were redlined in 39 X 25’s. I should have just kicked him over. I wish I would have.
I have lots of other stories like this. It was so apparent that he was doping that it was no surprise to find out that he was in the US because his apartment had been raided in Italy and he had enough HGH and testosterone to supply an army.
Anyway, I hate the fact that he is racing here on US soil. I was wondering about why that is still possible. I guess it is because he appealed his lifetime sentence this year, even though he’d been racing continuously since it was imposed.
I saw that his sentence was retroactively enforced from 2008 to 2010. I was wondering, since he was racing in the United States during that time, and he won a ton of money here, if USADA could force him to pay his forfeited winnings back or face suspension. And this could be done before Sunday.
He would have to come up with a big chunk of money. I was racing in Tulsa when the whole Toyota-United team were beyond ball hogs and won 80% of the total prize list, which was, I believe close to 6 figures. Then he won Nature Valley and other events. He is supposed to pay his winning back I believe. I very much doubt he did.
If anyone has any information on this or how to apply a rule, if there is such a rule, maybe it could prevent this from happening. The ball needs to get rolling or the guy is going to start another race on US soil, The World Road Championships. It is pretty much a joke and makes our sport look silly.
Two of my favorite pictures of Ivan.
From the C.O.N.I. decision –
Stevic is just one of so many……………………..
Why waste your money and time racing against the guy?
Maybe karma will show its face. and give him an timely flat or mechanical…. one can hope, can’t they?:)
Maybe the only 100% honest reporting of cycling anywhere.
No bullshit Tilford. Thank you.
I hope you once again enjoyed your visit to our beautiful state for Chequamegon!
My Tweet to @BrianCooksonUCI :
” skippy mc carthy @skippydetour 2m2 minutes ago
@BrianCooksonUCI DO s/useful https://stevetilford.com/2015/09/24/ivan-stevic-doperprickelite-world-championship-participate/#comments … Is THIS what WADA /CONI allows? SHOW Leadership & Collect O/due
Had previously sent the following :
skippy mc carthy @skippydetour 42m42 minutes ago
@BrianCooksonUCI WILL #UCIJuniorConf Include CYCLIST SAFETY ? If not WHAT will UCI do 4 #PeopleOnBikes? TrafficKILLS
NOW , it will be a case of What UCI WANTS to do ?
Seems like a quality individual…. The thing I don’t understand is the doping agencies and the thought that doping only aids in performance until the drugs are out of your system. Ban the rider, have them come back with clean blood and all is forgiven when much of the medical research has proven many of today’s PEDs have body & system altering effects that can last decades if not for a lifetime. You mean to tell me if I ate HGH out of a candy dish at my home for 5-10 years when I’m in my 20’s it would have no lasting effects on my body when I’m 32? Or what if I eat the famous ‘tainted beef’ of Europe – i.e Clenbuterol – and my weight drops from 150 lbs. to 135 lbs and I simply maintain 135-140 for the next decade and then I’m clean and there are no lingering benefits?
Throw these bums out for life and let them scrounge for drugs on the streets like the other junkies in the world. A dose of reality would be good for all.
Because the international federation is okay with doping. Just be sure to attract viewers/sponsor revenue while doing it.
The new structure of elite international races is going to make doping-related corruption worse. The UCI is positioning itself to make quite a bit of money though, and that’s the actual point.
Totally agree Steve, what a turd
USADA doesn’t care. They already “got” their guy.
They’re done.
.
What karma? He’s riding at elite international level. It seems like everything has worked out pretty great for him.
How about karma for the USA Cycling’s beloved dopers? How about karma for Canada’s Giro winner?
Why doesn’t someone go break a few of his fingers before the worlds..
Italian pussy! Come on USA road racers, handle this shit, internally, send him home!
Stop letting these assholes take money out of legit racers pockets!
Maybe karma will show its face….in the form of a broomstick in his front wheel.
How did Henk ever get through his domestic days without testing positive or attaining a dirty rep? There’s a few others on that roster that seemed stinky too.
Anyone notice the tobacco products company Altria’s signs all over the television feed?
Maybe the athletes can smoke an Altria product on the podium this time.
Cycling and cigarettes. What a great combination.
I love how Mayweather got a retroactive TUE from USADA regarding IV’s for his bout with Pacquiao.
All of your statements are so self righteous. All sports have cheaters. Cycling judged him, and now he’s free to race. Sorry you don’t like that, but we don’t hang people in the town square, for cheating at sports. Unless of course you’re Lance Armstrong. And as far as the guy who said, you get lifetime benefits from doping. I call bullshit. I doped in the 80’s and 90’s and have absolutely no benefit from it. I regularly get beat by guys, who couldn’t have even stayed on my wheel as a Pro. Experts can make facts support almost anything. And they routinely make them support points of view, that sell magazines and newspapers. I would have thought people were smart enough to realize that. But I guess the dumbing of America, is worse than I thought.
So because YOU doped and don’t think you’ve gotten a lifetime benefit, that means that NO ONE ELSE has? Is this really how you think? Actually, I guess it’s how a lot of people think, which explains so much of the idiocy out there.
He’s Serbian.
Roberto – Since you are good with cycling judging him and him being “free” to race, since he was disqualified from all the events he did in 2008, do you or do you not think that he needs to repay all the prize money he won. I raced dozens of races with the guy and he probably always beat me. Tulsa alone, he alone being ahead of just me in the 4 races probably cost me somewhere between $500-$1000. The US rules say he refunds all the prize money. Do you think he did that? I very, very much doubt it. So, no refund, not racing here. That’s my opinion.
Cheating in professional sports should be handled by the courts, because there is fraud involved that results in illegal fiancial gain. Steve is opinionated for sure, but so are you. And that is OK, we all have opinions and he chooses to display his publicly. You choose to be berate him whenever you feel like it it seems. Is that your mission statement in life? To call out “self righteous” imdividuals? And now for my inquisition of you Roberto. You doped. That makes you a liar and a cheat. What are you cheating and lying about now? How many true freinds do you have in life? Liars and cheats tend to live life in isolation. Steve sure is not a liar and a cheat, and apparently has a great many friends, which is a true measure of a persons worth. Touche.
FYI- Homeboy’s partner in crime was Clemente Cavaliere in Italy until they were run out on a rail & ended up in U.S. riding for Aerospace Engineering, continuing to lube each other up. Upon returning home, Cavaliere got nabbed still doing shitbaggy stuff in ’09.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/anti-doping-raid-in-italy/
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/fruit-of-two-nations/
We made jokes in ’05-’06 Bisbee/Gila that Stevic used to attack his own attacks. He really found a home of like-minded asshats later.
What a pompous ass this guy was. Fuck him & the horse he rode in on.
Don’t fret. He won’t make it through half the race.
I see this as far less of crime than Jim Ochowicz still managing a team. Like JV said……check your front door first before throwing rocks.
Oh and I would have taken out the thumbs up thumbs down option in the remarks section as well. Smart move.
Like I said, why on earth would you travel to Richmond to watch a farce of a race, full of dopers, liars and cheaters? What’s it gonna take to make you realize it will never stop. You’re fucked because you love it too much to turn your back on it (cycling, or more accurately pro racing).
You need to make your peace with the way it is and the way it’s always gonna be. I did that by saying fuck these skinny D-Bag cheaters, there’s a million other things to do with one’s time than to bother with trying to make it stop. All you can do is make a stand against all dopers, and dirty organizations by calling them out. You do it to this guy but others get a full pass. Double standard fully in place. For that I hope he wins the races and spits on you as he crosses the line, with any luck maybe some of his EPO will pass into your system and then you can join the good folks at BMC.
Any time you talk about doping in cycling and get all itchy about it, your karma clock starts ticking. You could make a small difference, and your readers/fans would stand up and cheer. But instead you keep doing the hypocrite thing. It’s gotten to where tons of guys hate you and your stupid, obvious, hypocritical rants just piss everyone off. The way you feel about Stevic is the way we feel about you. That’s why the comment section has turned into a hate fest. You’re a dick Tilford. You’re a great friend to your friends, but the overall consensus is a landslide. We can’t all be wrong.
Although I’m sure a bunch of your little jock sniffers will jump at the opportunity to defend you and rail against me. Which only emphasizes my point. That and, oh ya, I don’t give a flying fuck!
GO IVAN!!!!
steve, he probably figured everybody else is taking drugs, so why not him too..even the playing field.. maybe he was unlucky and got caught.. all others racing that race didnt get caught..who knows, who cares..why the big deal about this guy?? every pro on bmc is on drugs… write about them… why do u always signal out a guy u dont like and slam him.. slam bmc and every pro team..
this one guy makes our sport look silly??????????? lol!! lol!!! what about kelly merckx and all the 100’s of real pros that got caught on non legal drugs and kept on racing.. leave this clown alone and focus all your energy on busting the pro teams..start at bmc.. you have the inside info on this team..cant believe your post today on this one guy when everybody racing is loaded up on drugs..
*participant
Repaying prize money won while doping is not always something USADA has ordered. Here are the USADA conditions for the 2012 suspensions handed down to six riders who confessed. Note that only one rider was ordered to repay prize money.
George Hincapie accepted a suspension from September 1 and disqualification from results from May 31, 2004 to July 31, 2006.
Christian Vande Velde accepted a suspension from September 9 and disqualification from results from June 4, 2004 to April 31, 2006.
Dave Zabriskie accepted a suspension from September 1 and disqualification from results from May 31, 2003 to July 31, 2006.
Levi Leipheimer accepted a suspension from September 1 and was disqualified from results from June 1999 to July 30, 2006, and from July 7 to July 29, 2007. In order to regain eligibility, he must repay all prize money forfeited as a result of his anti-doping rule violation.
Tom Danielson accepted a suspension from September 1 and disqualification from results from March 1, 2005 to September 23, 2006.
Michael Barry accepted a suspension from September 10 and disqualification from results from May 13, 2003 to July 31, 2006.
I remember that “Aerospace Engineering” season.
Ivan must have been clean when he arrived in the US.
He was getting dropped at Redlands, going off the front at Sea Otter, then climbing with elevation climbers by Gila-
A Rod still playing baseball, its not just cycling, our culture accepts it like Afghans accept rape of children.
The IOC would never go for that. The system they have now permits doping and encourages bribery.
There is a great deal of effort that goes into obfuscating the simple fact the sports federation are the only authority on doping sanctions.
There are so many problems with the anti-doping system I’d be satisfied if a NADO could open cases independent of the sports federation.
As was made clear by the manufactured IV scandal with Mayweather/Pacquiao, no one involved in producing that story bothered to figure out how actually USADA works.
FYI, USADA doesn’t order athletes to do stuff. They apply the sanctions as ordered by the federations where there are no clear standards. Where there are clear rules, again, it’s the federation in charge.
Pretty much, although he missed the break at Sea Otter & rode across a 20 minute gap solo only to have his legs seize up from the jacked up effort.
As far as the sanctions above, why did Levi get the call to reimburse all monies & no one else? Maybe the early/mid 90’s positive he got dinged for? Why doesn’t he have a lifetime ban next to his name? Another tool riding The Grasshopper series when he was serving a suspension & tried to hide it after the “results” were posted on VN. Meanwhile, all the local Conti pros got their hands slapped for doing the ride by USAC, proving it fell under USAC jurisdiction.
We might as well be tipping windmills.
Only a fool would think that you can compete in cycling at the highest level without doping. Look at the amount of drugs that Willy Voet was caught with in 1998. Every rider on Festina was on the program. All the other riders in the peloton were on similar programs. A rider like Bassons, who was actually clean, sees the reality, there is no possible way to compete against the dopers and he is forced out of the sport. Tyler says a dope test is simply and IQ test, you only fail when you make a mistake. Floyd had an echo-positive in 2006 when he was doing testosterone while extracting a blood bag prior to the Tour. Without that mistake he would have won the Tour. Tyler must have gotten someone else’s blood bag in 2004. That got detected at the Olympics and the Vuelta. Other than that mistake he’s Olympic champion. Every time someone tests positive a misake was made. I have guys on my group rides who are on testoterone, EPO and HGH. They want the same drugs that Lance took and have doctors who will prescribe it to them. Can you win alocal non-NRC CAT1 race clean? I think you can. Can you be on the podium at an NRC race clean? I highly doubt it. Can you be a top rider on the Pro Tour clean? No way. We have to take cycling for what it is. It’s as real as pro wrestling or bodybuilding. It’s a good show, just don’t think that they are doing it clean. The only problem is that if everyone was clean who would have won? We will never know. Ivan made a mistake and got caught. He was just doing what everyone else was but he just got caught. He has been re-instated, he can race. If you want to get mad about something get mad about the system. A great place to start would be with Jim Ochowicz. I’m sure his room is right down the hall.
You don’t give a fuck yet you continually come on here with the same ranting BS. You have better things to do with your time??? I somehow don’t buy that….LMAO!
Trying to immediately label/categorize anyone who doesn’t agree with you as “jock sniffers” is laughable. Says a lot about you.
If you “hate” Steve and pretty much abhor his thoughts on things then WHY do you waste your oh so valuable time coming here and commenting? You have a million other things you could be doing as opposed to constantly coming on here to counter Steve’s opinion. Right? Levi, you are a complete joke.
About Danielson… what about that b-sample? Ain’t it a bit past-due?
Thumbs down.
Maybe everyone who wins prize money should have their credit card number on file so they can “bill” them back the prize money when found to be cheating.
Look at how long it’s been since Paolini tested positive and his B sample analysis still hasn’t been done. If that is any indication of how quickly the labs work, I think we’re in for a long wait with Danielson.
Word on the street is that Tommy T-Patch is getting off.
Hey Roberto, I see your points and really I have to agree with you to a very large degree. But, as a gesture of contrition on your part, why don’t you give back all that money you won when doping? Every time you won a sprint, you were stealing from riders who did not choose to dope. I was one of those riders. You were unfair back in the 80’s and 90’s. Why not do the fair thing now? That includes the big money, too…not just the $100 wins from the countless crits in Cali.
Cycling is so full of hypocritical double standard people it is unbelievable. You can’t keep singling out certain individuals like Stevic and your pal Tommy D. Are they dirtbags? Of course they are. But start listing all the other riders with doping pasts competing in Richmond. Including Americans and BMC riders. Rag on all of them too. Let’s face it, it’s a sport of lying, dishonest cheaters. Too bad because cycling in and of itself is a beautiful thing. Oh yeah,say hi to Big George.
Steve, why did you take down the thumbs up or thumbs down feature? It allowed people who can’t or don’t want to write to voice their opinion. It was an addition to your blog. Just my .02.
I vote that Andrew’s “Tommy T-Patch” nickname for Danielson be officially adopted by everybody. Anybody second the motion?
They published the a-sample results right quickly. Why should the b take any longer (if using the same test protocols)?
Doug-I didn’t and really hadn’t noticed it was gone. I think there was a WordPress update and it must have disappeared then. I’ll check. Thanks for pointing it out.
If everyone in serious contention is riding doped, then it’s still a competition. Doping regimens are widely known, and likely to be very similar for each doping rider, so in the end analysis, race results are still dependent on the same things that determine the winner if all riders are racing clean. If anti-doping rules aren’t going to be strictly and evenly enforced, then there’s no need for them, or for drug testing or any of the rest of that. It will just be a common assumption, that if you intend to be competitive, then you must use performance enhancing drugs. The same goes for electro-mechanical improvements to bicycles, the instant it’s first detected, then if it produces a race win, those who wish to be competitive will adopt it. People who wish to steer clear of doping would be best advised to avoid bike racing, as it will only cause frustration and disappointment; there are many other things you can do with bikes besides racing.
I don’t understand how Stevic was doing 120rpm when all other riders were grinding 39×25, was he riding a triple?
🙂
Roberto – Let me say at first say that I’m assuming your last name is Pascani. So please correct me and then forgive me if I’m wrong, as we all know what happens when we assume things. That’s right… we make an ASS out of U and ME.
Well, a quick Google/Facebook search reveals that Roberto Pascani is a former road pro and a former Italian Masters Champion. However, after a fairly exhaustive search, I was unable to find the year in which Roberto Pascani won the Italian Masters, in order to confirm if that year fell within your admitted doping years of the “80’s and 90’s”.
So, I’m going to assume — please correct and forgive me again if I’m wrong — that you were doped-up when you won the Italian Masters.
So, you say that you now have “absolutely no benefit” from your previous doping. Well, I’m of the opinion (correct me if I’m wrong) that getting to wear the National Stripes of ones country is a pretty decent benefit. If wearing those stripes are not a benifit, then why wear them?
A penny for your thoughts Roberto…
Crum,
Who is Kelly Merckx? Does Eddy have a sister who also is a pro cyclists? Or perhaps you meant, “What about Sean Kelly, Eddy Merckx and all the 100’s of real pros…” Crum, can you clarify this a bit for me?
Just a word of advice for you Crum – When you are trying to make yourself sound intelligent and knowledgable about a subject that you actually know nothing about, proper grammar and punctuation helps tremendously.
I’ve been watching Stevic ride in the break all morning, on livestream from Richmond (Eurosport?) and now Paul and Christian on NBC Sports, and not a word of his doping past! Omerta?
Say what you want but the dude rode like a boss!!! And to salute the crowd at the end was pure class. Eddy B would be proud!!!
Hey Steve, I usually agree with your opinions but I have to say I like Ivan. I don’t like what he did, of course, but I love Stevic. He’s a very good friend. I was certainly effected by guys that doped in the 90’s and 2000’s. I don’t care about the trophies and podium pics, I missed out on cash! For sure, I had some hate burning for years. Maybe you saw my FB rants a few years ago:) But, like I found with Ivan, it isn’t always black and white and a lot of guys who made a bad decision back then very much regret it now.
I was absolutely pissed off when I learned of Ivan’s case back in 2009 or 2010 ( I don’t remember when it came out) and I sent him a menacing message letting him know how I felt. I’ve had beers with Ivan since and discussed the whole thing in detail. You should really just ask him about it. He is open and honest about it all. I saw first hand Ivan’s commitment to keep young riders on a straight path, he really only came to world’s to support the Serbian riders in other races. How many other Pro’s were washing their teammates bikes on Friday before the race?
I have a lot of respect for you and I always liked racing with you. You have my info, feel free to email if you wanna discuss further.