Why do riders continue to cheat via illegal drugs in this day and age of drug tests, police raids, and tell-all books? Perhaps it is a naive question as it was only the mid-90s that many cycling professionals quietly stated that drug-taking was the rule not the exception. Regardless, it’s now 2005 and they should all know better.

Italian rider Dario Frigo should certainly know better. He was forced to pull out of the 2001 Giro d’Italia when Italian police found drugs in his hotel room.

With luck, we’ll never see the 31–year old in a professional bike race again. Frigo was arrested before Wednesday’s 11th stage of the Tour de France after doping products were found in his wife’s car.

Customs officials and local police arrested his wife on Tuesday with about 10 doses of the endurance-boosting drug EPO (erythropoietin).

• Anyone who cheats like this deserves our scorn (plus a lifetime ban).
• Anyone who uses their wife as a drug mule, deserves to be deported to Saudi Arabia to be stoned. (pun intended)

The news raised a few unanswered questions:

• Since Frigo is presumably on the juice, why isn’t it showing up in his blood tests? Is there a Euro-Balco involved?
• Since the borders between European countries are pretty open, why did customs officials search the car in the first place? Do they target bike rider’s wives? (and maybe that’s a good idea).
• Who else is involved: teammates, manager, trainers, team doctors?
• What charges will he face? “Sporting fraud” charges in Italy a la Mario Pantani?

I’m sorry Mr. Frigo but I have zero interest in hearing any excuses you might have (e.g., “They are not mine.”) and I feel the same way about you as I do the juiced-up professional baseball players, American sprinters, and other cheaters. I hope you are charged with sporting fraud because that is exactly what you are.

For additional coverage check here or TdFBlog.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 13th, 2005 at 9:44 pm by Insider and is filed under Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.