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LATEST NEWS: LIVE FROM LAKE COMO: MATTEO ALGERI, WAITING FOR HIS COMEBACK
Gregor Brown
February 11, 2010
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Riccardo Riccò will make his return this March following his suspension – 20 months for doping. He introduced cycling, and other sports, to a new doping substance, CERA, and took down a team along the way.
His old sports director, Italian Matteo Algeri, is still waiting to make his own comeback and believes Riccò is deserving of a lifetime ban.
Riccò, or 'The Cobra' as he liked to call himself, turned professional in 2006 with Mauro Gianetti's Saunier Duval. Gianetti had cleared the way for Riccò to become professional, working with the International Cycling Union (UCI) to receive a certificate for Riccò's naturally high hematocrit.
He immediately repaid his new boss in his debut season, winning a stage of Coppi & Bartali and the Japan Cup. Riccò went even better the next year, 2007, with two stages at Tirreno-Adriatico, one at Coppi & Bartali and the Giro d'Italia's mythical stage to Tre Cime di Lavaredo. Amazing stuff, but 'The Cobra' had even bigger plans for 2008.
 The Cobra, Riccardo Riccò (Photo: Roberto Bettini)
The snake was let loose. First at the Giro d'Italia, where he won two stages, the younger riders' classification and finished second to none other than Alberto Contador. Then at the Tour de France, where he won the stage to Super Besse and Bagnères-de-Bigorre, and held mountain and young rider jerseys before testing positive for a new version of Erythropoietin (EPO) – CERA. It seemed his hematocrit was no longer naturally high.
Riccò, who had become the first sportsman to test positive for CERA, left the Tour de France with the French police, and team Saunier Duval went home and left the sport soon after.
Gianetti managed to scrape together some sponsors, Fuji-Servetto, and continued in cycling's top tier in 2009. This year, he continues, but with a new sponsor, his insole company, Footon.
 Algeri, behind the wheel at a Saunier Duval (Photo: Roberto Bettini)
"We said we could no longer work with him [Gianetti] in September [of 2008] because we had different positions on key issues," said Matteo Algeri, then a director sportif along with his dad, Pietro. "We've been involved, despite having responsibility, and we've paid for it."
Matteo Algeri raced professional with Lampre, riding Paris-Roubaix with Franco Ballerini, before retiring to become one of cycling's youngest sports directors. As a director, he had worked with Riccò since Gianetti signed him, though the two never became close.
"Even my father did not have a good relationship with him, and he was his closest director," continued Algeri. "That was Riccò's biggest problem, it was hard to make him understand and listen to directions, he always acted on his own. Maybe this attributed to his greatness, but also his major fault."
 Pietro Algeri did not have a good relationship with Riccò
Algeri directed Riccò at the 2008 Giro d'Italia, but the wins don't mean much to him. When mentioned that Riccò won the white jersey of best young rider, Algeri said that he uses the jersey he received as a gift to clean house. It wasn't clear if he was joking.
"I agree with Mark Cavendish [who said called Riccò a 'parasite'] and Marco Pinotti, it makes me want to vomit that he is coming back."
Algeri, and his dad, have found it hard to return to cycling, though their love for the sport still exists. They directed a small Continental team, Team Piemonte, for the first three months of 2009, but it quickly ended when the team's sponsors refused to pay their staff.
They have plans to return at the Professional Continental level, or second division, next year, but they need to find the sponsors to make it happen.
"It is hard to make [a potential sponsor] understand it was just the case of the rider, and not the whole team," Algeri said of Riccò's lasting effect. "We need the right sponsor and we have to offer them new ideas: a team that respects all the rules, anti-doping rules down to using recyclable bottles and efficient cars.
"We want to own the team and be involved in all the decisions. If you want to make a team with your way of thinking then you have to own the team, otherwise you have no power. With the way cycling is now, you can't allow such a situation."
Algeri wants to create a small team, 16 to 18 riders, where he and his dad, though owners, can also act as sports directors.
"Keeping a small team so that you can have control of all of them," he said. "Like a football team, all the sources are from within the team, doctors and trainers."
To make his dream happen and make his return to cycling, Algeri is looking not only in Italy, but he is searching globally. He estimates he needs at least 1.5 million euros.
"The sponsors are more receptive outside of Europe, where cycling is a new sport. However, the main problems facing us are now are economic crisis and cycling's bad publicity."
Surely, if 'The Cobra' was able to suffer the bad publicity and find a team, then two talented directors, like Algeri and his dad, can have their comeback. |
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