Astana implicated in Padova doping report

>>> Dr Michele Ferrari denies claims he helped Astana team

Astana manager Alexander Vinokourov arranged contracts with doctor Michele Ferrari for at least 10 Astana riders in 2010, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.

The Italian newspaper’s report is based on a 550-page report by Padova police, which comes after a comprehensive investigation including phone taps, house searches and the seizure of bank records.

The report, which names 38 riders in total, claims Vinokourov and Ferrari remain closely linked, although the Italian has denied visiting an Astana training camp in 2013.

According to the paper, the police reports says: “Vinokourov is one of Ferrari's men. Almost all the Kazakh team - 17 riders - are followed by Ferrari.”

Among the other names mentioned in the report are Tinkoff Saxo rider Roman Kreuziger, Movistar sprinter Jose Joaquin Rojas and three-time Grand Tour winner Denis Menchov.

Full list of riders:

Leonardo Bertagnolli, Simone Boifava, Diego Caccia, Enrico Franzoi, Marco Frapporti, Omar Lombardi, Fabrizio Macchi, Marco Marcato, Andrea Masciarelli, Francesco Masciarelli, Simone Masciarelli, Daniele Pietropolli, Morris Possoni, Filippo Pozzato, Alessandro Proni, Michele Scarponi, Francesco Tizza, Giovanni Visconti, Ricardo Pichetta, Andrea Vaccher, Mauricio Ardila, Volodymyr Bileka, Borut Bozic, Maxim Gourov, Vladimir Gusev, Valentin Iglinskiy, Sergei Ivanov, Vladimir Karpets, Aleksander Kolobnev, Dimitri Kozontchuk, Roman Kreuziger, Denis Menchov, Evgeni Petrov, Yaroslav Popovych, José Joaquin Rojas, Ivan Rovny, Egor Silin, Alexandre Vinokourov.

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