Giorgio Squinzi, the former boss of the powerhouse 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Mapei cycling team, today told Italian media that i🌊n 1999 then UCI president Hein V🐻erbruggen threatened to disqualify the Italian's Mapei team following Squinzi's assertion that a top overall finish in Grand Tours was impossible without doping.

Following Lance Armstrong's recent statement that Verbruggen was instrumental in the cover-up of the American's positive test for cortisone at the 1999 Tour🌜 ౠde France, Squinzi, while a🐷t a conference in Pescara, Italy, today spoke 𝓰of his own dealings with Verbruggen and his knowledge that the UCI president was protecting Armstrong.

"Sure it happened," Squinzi told Tuttobici. "I told him in 1999 when I said that you could not get in the top five 🃏at the Grand Tours without the use of doping.

"When I said t🎀hose things Verbruggen threatened to d👍isqualify my team forever."

During Mapei's 10-year run, from 1993 to 2002, the team was a dominant force in professional cycling with 653 victories in the squad's palmares. W𓆏ith riders such as Franco Ballerini, Michele Bartoli, Paolo Bettini, Johan Museeuw, Tony Rominger and Andrea Tafi in the team's ranks, Mapei was a force to be reckoned with, particularly in the Spring Classics.