"My silence was bought": new revelations about the doping past of Mauro Gianetti, Pogacar's manager

Ploc-ploc. It's the finger that taps the syringe. Regularly, the sulphurous past of Mauro Gianetti, manager of the three-time winner of the Tour, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar , is revived, through press profiles. This is the case this Friday, June 27, a week before the start of the Tour de France, with an investigation by Radio France . The peloton, for its part, never flinches in front of this character at the head of the powerful UAE Team Emirates, which makes Gérard Guillaume, former doctor of the Française des Jeux, say: "How can we be credible in the fight against doping when we take as managers people whose entire careers have been sullied by doping?"

Which isn't entirely true: during the first part of his career, Mauro Gianetti was a peloton rider with a modest track record, and as such, was not suspected of taking any drugs. Prestigious successes followed one after the other from 1995, when he signed for the Italian team Polti, when he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Amstel Gold Race in quick succession and without warning. This period is known for the widespread use of EPO in the peloton. In 1998, the story is well known: the Swiss rider started the Tour de Romandie, and during the third stage, he fell while climbing the Col des Planches, in the canton of Valais. He was sent to the hospital. Mauro Gianetti, who didn't yet have a completely smooth head, narrowly escaped death.

The man, as a druid apprentice, injected perfluorocarbon (PFC) directly into his veins. This confession is included in his medical file, as reported by Radio France, which specifies that since PFC is not soluble in blood, the former runner diluted it with an emulsifier. Two doctors from the Lausanne University Hospital—who did not treat Gianetti—filed a complaint against unknown persons, and the courts therefore opened an investigation for "serious bodily harm" and "endangering the lives of others." In this procedure, Gianetti requested victim status to gain access to the file and witness statements. This prompted a judicial source, interviewed by Radio France, who met with the investigating judge in charge of the investigation, to say: "There was a desire on his part to cover things up. Clearly, he wanted to get involved in the proceedings to find out who had testified against him."

At the same time, Gianetti is suing the two doctors at Lausanne University Hospital and demanding payment orders (3 million Swiss francs for one, 900,000 for the other), a specific feature of Swiss law, a sort of damages claimed when an individual feels wronged. A financial sword of Damocles in the lives of the doctors, who eventually agree to negotiate with Gianetti. "In exchange, I had to promise never to speak publicly about this person again, and I'm sticking to that," one explained to Radio France, without mentioning Gianetti's name. "You could say my silence was bought. It's the privilege of certain people who have a certain amount of power. They have the ability to silence anyone, anyhow."

What's next for Gianetti? A manager at Saunier-Duval, a boiler company, he saw his rider Riccardo Ricco ousted from the 2008 Tour de France after some stellar performances (and, it is understood, a positive test for EPO). Just another minor setback in the Swiss's sporting life, who, ten years later, bounced back, finally reaching the heights he had hoped for (three Tours de France with Pogacar) with the UAE Emiratis.