Cycling: Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) is currently receiving a lot of bouquets. However, the overall leader of the Tour de France also has to put up with some unpleasant questions.
After his second place finish at Risoul, he vehemently denied the allegation in 2009 of having worked with the life banned doctor Michele Ferrari.
"I never met him", said the Sicilian. The allegation goes back to a story in the Italian newspaper The Republic back from 2009. At that time, Nibali had finished seventh in France in the colors of Team Liquigas. The story alleged that he had trained under Ferrari with his then teammate Franco Pellizotti.
Nibali had sued the newspaper at the time because of this allegation. The case was discontinued in 2011.
Nothing could be proven to Nibali at the time. It was different in the case of Pellizotti, who won the Tour's mountains classification in 2009 but was denied that title and then had to serve a two-year ban for irregularities in his blood profile. The situation could be similar in the case of Roman Kreuziger, who is currently confronted with the same problem and who has agreed to cooperate.
Ferrari is best known for its work in the case of Lance Armstrong. He has been banned from working with cyclists in Italy since 2002. However, this did not prevent him from continuing his work. Nibali's precious helper Michele Scarponi was later one of the controversial doctor's customers.
But that doesn't mean anything. Nibali himself is clean slate and despite his current dominance, it is to be wished for him and for cycling that it is justifiably unsullied. If that is the case, then all critical questions should still prove to be a storm in a teacup in a few weeks.