The controversy surrounding Fabian Cancellara after accusations of motorized doping has beckoned in a new era of distrust in cycling. The Cancellara incident was the first, but now, unfortunately, another finger has been pointed. This time, the rider under fire is ISD-Neri-Gambenini's Italian champion, Giovanni Visconti.
Ivano Fanini, founder and president of the Italian continental outfit, Amore e Vita, accused ISD-Neri's recently crowned Italian champion and Tour of Turkey winner, Giovanni Visconti, of utilizing a motorized bicycle en route to his second career Italian National Championship in Conegliano. The accusations were published on friday on ANSA.it as well as other news sources.
Unsurprisingly, the ISD-Nerti-Giambenini response was quick and decisive, and points straight to the impossibility of such a claim because of the very nature of the bikes that they provide, which bear the name of one of the team's most influential leaders, Mario Cipollini.
"The design of the Cipollini bicycle, which the team uses and which Visconti used to win the Italian Championship, does not, by its very geometry, allow for any instruments and/or engine cylinders in the seat tube. The bike is characterized by a curved seat tube, in which the diameter is non-regular, and 'broken' in two places to change the angle. This refutes on technical considerations alone the false statements by Ivano Fanini."
The team, which disappointingly did not receive an invite to this year's Giro d'Italia, is not stopping there, however. ISD-Neri points out correctly that the implications of such comments are not minor and are not strictly related to just Visconti.
"In respect to the consequences of the statements made by Fanini, it is also noteworthy that such statements affect different subjects simultaneously, namely the rider, Giovanni Visconti, the new Italian champion, the ISD-Neri-Giambenini team for whom the athlete races, as well as Mario Cipollini and his brand of bikes, which the team is equipped with."
The next step is an unsurprising one. The team wishes to take the matter to court to clear its name.
"Therefore, given the serious and defamatory statements made by Ivano Fanini, the stakeholders have already mandated its legal trust, Mr. Joseph Napoleon, to take this matter to both criminal and civil courts, so as to enforce their unquestionable right to protect the name and image and call for adequate compensation for the resulting damage caused by today's statements."