Marco Marcato(Image credit: Cannondale Pro Cycling)
José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar Team)(Image credit: El Pedal de Frodo)
Italian Marco Marcato has denied any connection to the banned trainer Michele Ferrari, as alleged in today's Gazzetta dello Sport, while Spaniard Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) admitted to working with Ferrari's son Stefano, but said it was only for training advice.
Marcato, 30, who rode with Cannondale this season and has signed with Wanty Groupe for 2015, said he does not even know Ferrari.
"I never had any sort of connection with Dr. Ferrari. I never knew this man," Marcato said. "I have never met him and I have never talked with him. I want to defend my image which is strongly affected by this article. I am available to the authorities to answer all the questions and to prove my innocence in this matter."
The Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport published 38 names it said were included in the report compiled by the prosecutor's office in Padova into the activities of Ferrari.
Ferrari was banned for life from working with athletes first by the Italian Cycling Federation (FCI) in 2002, extending the ban to his work with any UCI-registered rider. Giovanni Visconti, Michele Scarponi and Filippo Pozzato were given three-month bans in relation to their work with Ferrari in 2012. Ferrari was finally banned for life by USADA after the investigation into the doping activities of Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service team unearthed details about his methods.
Rojas has been linked to the code name Rosillas, which was included in the report as a result of the testimony of Ukrainian Volodymyr Bileka to the US Anti-Doping Agency. Bileka testified that he trained in Saint Moritz with Luis Leon Sanchez and an unidentified Caisse d'Epargne rider, suspected to be Rojas based on Bileka's description.
The report contained transcripts of recorded telephone conversations and email exchanges between Rojas and Michele Ferrari's son Stefano in November, 2010.
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Rojas admitted to discussing training with Stefano Ferrari on Twitter today, but denied any wrongdoing.
"I exchanged several emails with Stefano Ferrari on my workouts. Everything else is unsubstantiated rumors," Rojas wrote. "None of this has to do with my team. I hope that we will not be unfairly affected by this fallacy. All of this happened in the 2010 season, when that person was neither prohibited nor under investigation."
