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VeloBriefs: Hondo ruling expected in two weeks; Ferrari appeal postponed; Rumsas faces court

By The Associated Press, and Agence France Presse
Published: Nov. 22, 2005
Hondo maintains his innocence
Hondo maintains his innocence
Photo: AFP (file photo)

German rider Danilo Hondo should find out in two weeks if an appeal against a one-year doping ban is successful, his lawyer said Tuesday after a lengthy hearing with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Hondo, who has a Swiss racing license, was handed a one-year ban by the Swiss Olympic association in June after he tested positive for carphedon, a banned stimulant, twice during the Tour of Murcia in Spain in April.

The 31-year-old won two stages in that race, following up on his second-place finish behind Alessandro Petacchi in the prestigious, season-opening classic Milan-San Remo in March.

Gerolsteiner subsequently fired Hondo. Still, his lawyer, Michael Lehner, says he is confident of having his ban quashed.

"We just have to wait a little longer. But I'm very confident," said Lehner after an eight-hour hearing with CAS in Lausanne, Swiitzerland.

Hondo, the team's star sprinter, has maintained his innocence and claims that a water bottle that hadn't been cleaned out properly could have been at the root of his positive test.

Carphedon is used to treat amnesia, but also helps to increase stamina and to resist cold weather.

At the CAS hearing Hondo was given the support of professor Werner Franke, a German specialist in the field of doping.

CAS is also set to rule on a simultaneous challenge by International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA), which want the sanction against him increased. —Agence France Presse

Ferrari appeal postponed
The appeal of Michele Ferrari, the Italian doctor who treated leading cyclists including seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, was postponed Tuesday.

Ferrari had appealed a 12-month suspended jail sentence for sports fraud and malpractice, handed to him last year by a court in Bologna, Italy. He was acquitted of the most severe charge of distributing health-threatening doping products.

Judges cited technicalities for the postponement. A new date was not immediately decided.

The Italian doctor always denied he dispensed illegal substances to athletes. However, Italian cyclist Filippo Simeoni, one of Ferrari's leading accusers, claimed during the first trial that the asterisks on the lists prepared by Ferrari for some cyclists indicated the use of forbidden drugs. —The Associated Press

Rumsas faces court in doping case
Lithuanian cyclist Raimondas Rumsas will appear before a French court Thursday on doping charges relating to the 2002 Tour de France, where he finished third.

Rumsas, 33, will appear alongside his wife, Edita Rumsas, 31, at the Bonneville criminal court in southeast France.

Rumsas on the Tour podium in 2002
Rumsas on the Tour podium in 2002
Photo: AFP (file photo)

On June 29, Rumsas was arrested at his home in Lucca, Tuscany, on a French warrant but released on July 8 after an appeals court in Florence deemed it sufficient to keep him under house arrest.

His Paris-based lawyer, Alexandre Varaut, said both would be present at the trial.

Rumsas faces up to three years in prison and a fine.

Edita Rumsas was released on Oct. 11, 2002, after being detained for 73 days for carrying suspected drug products in July 2002.

She was caught on the Italian-French border with 37 suspected doping products in her car, which she said were for her ill mother.

She faces up to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros (US $87,950).

French authorities are also investigating a Polish doctor in the case, Kristof Ficek. He is not expected to appear in court Thursday. —The Associated Press

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