Italian prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello examines possibility of sporting fraud
Italian authorities are pushing ahead with an investigation into the possible use of motorised bikes in the professional peloton, specifically races within the country’s boarders.
Friday, June 11, public prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello opened a sporting fraud investigation. In Italy, gambling on sports is legal and altering the results of a bicycle race by doping or any other means constitutes sporting fraud.
Guariniello heard from former professional and television commentator Davide Cassani Monday in Turin. Cassani became the de facto expert on motorised bikes after showing a clip on Rai television, May 26, during the Giro d’Italia.
During the clip, Cassani said, “The person we got the bike from verified to us that some professionals have used it.”
His remarks also caught the ears of the International Cycling Union (UCI), who has been aware of the situation for some time and warned team directors about the use of motors at a meeting last November. Last Monday, June 7, the UCI met to discuss the situation that had now caught international attention.
Cassani said that he met Philippe Chevalier, Sports Coordinator of the UCI, and reiterated all the claims he made on television. He felt upset, though, that UCI President Pat McQuaid had dismissed his report when the UCI, according to Cassani and other sources, knew about motorised bikes for the last year.
A video posted on YouTube at the end of last month fuelled the news story along. The video’s author tried to prove Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) used a motorised bike to win Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix in April.
“It is so crazy that I don’t have words for it,” Cancellara told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “I have proved for years that I race with a motor in my legs, not on my bike.”
Cancellara is correct, racing so strongly is nothing new to him. The YouTube video is a distraction to a bigger problem, which is, as Cassani pointed out, that the UCI is not acting quickly enough.
Guariniello may provide the answers, at least to any use of the motors in Italy. He has experience too, he dogged top football club Juventus in a sporting fraud case for years. He nailed the team’s doctor on doping charges, for administering EPO to the club’s players. The doctor only escaped his 22-month suspended prison sentence thanks to an appeals process that exceeded the statute of limitations.