Dario Frigo

Dario Frigo

Personal information
Full name	Dario Frigo
Born	(1973-09-18) September 18, 1973 Saronno, Italy
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11+1⁄2 in)
Weight	66 kg (146 lb; 10 st 6 lb)
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All rounder
Professional teams
1996–1999	Saeco
2000–2001	Fassa Bortolo
2002	Vini Caldirola
2003–2005	Fassa Bortolo
Major wins
Tour de France, 1 stage Giro d'Italia, 2 stages Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme (2003) Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (2003) Züri-Metzgete (2002) Paris–Nice (2001) Tour de Romandie (2001, 2002)

Dario Frigo (born September 18, 1973 in Saronno, Italy) is a former professional road bicycle racer.

Career

The transition to professional, arrives at the Giro del Veneto 1995, with the jersey of the Mercatone Uno-Saeco. Since 1996, Saeco will be his team for four years and in 1999 it obtains his first victory at the Dekra Open, in Germany. In 2000, he joined the Fassa Bortolo and achieved success in Giro di Campania, Arco di Trento stage at the Giro del Trentino and he is 2^nd in Tour de Suisse . Success came in early 2001: the time trial at the Col d'Èze and the Final classification of the Paris-Nice and Tour de Romandie.

The Giro d'Italia starts and is one of the favorites for the final victory even though its strength is unknown in a three-week stage race. In the prologue he is second behind the winner Verbrugghe and thanks to this placement in the fourth stage with an uphill finish, arriving with the first, he manages to win the pink jersey. He will hold the symbol of primacy for nine days, handing it over to Gilberto Simoni at the end of the stage, arriving at Passo Pordoi, in the 13th stage. The gap in the ranking between the two is however minimal. On 3 June Frigo wins the 15th stage, the Sirmione-Salò, a time trial, but Simoni second manages to keep the shirt. [1] On June 7, an important stop is scheduled at the Imperia-Sant'Anna di Vinadio, but the stage is canceled following the searches of the NAS in the hotels of Sanremo where the teams participating in the Giro used to stay

During the searches in Frigo vials with doping substances are found which, by its admission, he owned, although he claimed to have never used them. The next morning Dario did not leave Busto Arsizio because he was fired by his team. Later it turns out that Dario had also been scammed since the label of those vials didn't match the product they were supposed to contain. But it was a detail: Frigo had tried to procure an illicit product and so he was sentenced to a 6-month ban until 8 March 2002.

In 2002 he was hired by Tacconi Sport and on his return to racing, in Paris-Nice, he won the hardest stage at the Col d'Èze. He then won a stage and the final classification of the Tour de Romandie. He returns at the start of the Giro d'Italia, but while still managing to stay with the leaders, he finishes with a modest 10th place in the standings at 11'50" from the winner Paolo Savoldelli. After the Giro he wins the Italian Championship time trial and it is presented at the start of the Tour: he wins the 17th stage in Megeve. After finishing the Tour in growing condition, in August he wins Subida a Urkiola and the World Cup Classic Zurich Metzgete, he is 5^thin the UCI Ranking.

In 2003 he started strong and in the first half of the season he won 6 races: stage at Paris-Nice, a stage and the final Classification both at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and at the Setmana Catalana and a stage in the Giro that ended in 7th place and a stage win in Pontechianale. Then he concentrates on the end season, completes the Vuelta with the twenty-first place and takes part in the World Championships individual time trial and road in Hamilton, he is retiring but only after working for the team in the road race and 5^thin the indivudual time trial. Closes the year with third place in the Giro di Lombardia and in the UCI ranking at the end of the season occupies the 14th position.

2004 is a very hard year for Frigo: three months away from racing, due to physical problems, and a slow and difficult recovery does not allow him to win any race. In spite of everything, for the second consecutive year he is selected for the World Championships in Verona.

In 2005, Dario started badly again: the results did not arrive, only 1 stage in Tour de Luxembourg and in July, during the Tour de France, he and his wife were stopped by the French police, after a ten doses of Epo were found. The ryder, excluded from the Tour de France, announces his decision to end his career.

Doping Investigation

Following the statements made by Dario Frigo, the Police Chief Jean-Philippe Casano carries out in-depth investigations and testified to the Judges as follows: "The inquiry diligently complies with your instructions allows us to verify and validate the assertions contained in Dario Frigo's letter , in particular identifying the different protagonists that he puts in question in a doping organization within his old team Fassa Bortolo, now dissolved. "(2006/7 Judicial Police Report).

Cyril Troussard (C.P.L.D) declares: "the method of doping organized within the Fassa Bortolo in 2003, described by Frigo in his letter is comparable with the Festina method" (2006/7 Judicial Police Report).

M. Alain Garnier (A.M.A.) validated Frigo's statements on the existence of an omerta in the sports world concerning doping practices within teams such as the Fassa Bortolo. (Minutes 2006/7 of the Judicial Police).

On 15/9/2008 at the Albertville Court Dario and his wife are sentenced to 6 months suspended. The Public Prosecutor appeals. On 23/4/2009 the Chambery Appeal Court reduced the sentence of both to 3 months suspended.

The Chambery Court , in the reasons for the sentence, states: "The investigations carried out on a rogatory commission have made it possible to give credibility to the architecture of the system denounced by Dario Frigo, that is a practice of doping athletes institutionalized and organized by the Fassa Bortolo team leaderseven if the instructor magistrate complained about the absence of any collaboration with the Italian authorities. The pressures suffered by Dario Frigo to bow to new systematic doping practices institutionalized within his team are clear. The humiliations and harassment of the Fassa Bortolo executives particularly hit a runner whose physical and psychological health had been fragile for years of doping in a scandalous system far from sport ethics. "(Dossier nr. 08 / 00899 of 23/4/09 Chambery Appeal Court).

And the conditioning suffered by the ryder in a proven environment in which the use of doping is defined as institutionalized has justified "the gentler application of the criminal law" (Dossier nr. 08/00899).

During the interrogation D96 in front of the Police Chief Jean-Philippe Casano, Ferretti declares: "the (Frigo) était payé près de ... euros par a et à ce tarif qui, an employer a le droit de faire pression ...".

The Ravenna Court branch of Lugo established that the Fassa Bortolo did not close due to Dario Frigo case.

Although the judges recognized the "doping organized and institutionalized" in 2010 at the Court of Treviso, the Fassa Bortolo filed a civil lawsuit against Dario Frigo for the injured image of Fassa Spa, for compensation of the patrimonial and non-patrimonial damages suffered by Fassa Bortolo and quality of the author of the declarations reported in the newspaper il Gazzettino, where he remained for a month, with consequent pecuniary reparation.

With sentence n. 2146/15 of 5/10/2015, the Court of Treviso rejects the request for damages from Fassa Bortolo.

The judge of the Treviso Court declares: "Faced with the investigations carried out by the French authority, the Fassa Bortolo has proved nothing about the falsity of what Frigo said, given that the apparent formal rigor towards the use of illicit substances taken by the company Fassa Bortolo was then denied by the choices made by the company itself, in particular, it cannot be overlooked that it was made use of by a sports director, Giancarlo Ferretti, with not particularly clear background, having the himself proceeded to hire ryders already convicted of doping or having worked to obtain the collaboration for Fassa Bortolo and for payment "in black", by Dr. Marcos Maynar, known for his experiments and the use of prohibited substances ".

Dr. Marcos Maynar was present at the retreats of Castrocaro Terme (11/2002) and Marina di Bibbona (01/2003), at the Puig Trophy, Vuelta Valenciana, Semana Catalana, Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Vuelta a Catalunya, Tour de Luxembourg, Deutschland Tour, Vuelta a Burgos and Vuelta a Espana '03 (70 days of competitions c.ca).

La Fassa Bortolo appeals to Venice Court. On 07/30/2018 the appeal is rejected. On March 2019 the deadlines for a possible appeal to the Court of Cassation expired.

Major results

1996 - Saeco

1997 - Saeco

1998 - Saeco

1999 - Saeco-Cannondale

Hofbrau Cup

2000 - Fassa Bortolo

2001 - Fassa Bortolo

Tour de Romandie

Paris–Nice

Giro d'Italia - Stage 15

2002 - Vini Caldirola

National Time-Trial Champion

Züri-Metzgete

Tour de Romandie

Subida a Urkiola

Tour de France - Stage 17

2003 - Fassa Bortolo

Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana

Giro d'Italia - Stage 18

2004 - Fassa Bortolo

2005 - Fassa Bortolo

See also

• List of doping cases in cycling
• List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences

External links

• Dario Frigo at trap-friis.dk