Pozzato will return to competition next week after escaping with a three-month ban from the Italian National Anti-Doping Tribunal for working with Dr Michele Ferrari.
 
Ferrari, the doping doctor banned for life by the US Anti-Doping Agency in July, was first blackballed in Italy in 2002. The Italian Cycling Federation said at the time that any rider caught consulting with Ferrari would be banned or up to six months. When the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) charged Pozzato back in June, the Farnese Vini rider admitted working with Ferrari from 2005 to 2009.
 
In his defence, Pozzato claimed that he had only ever received training programs from Ferrari. However, this looked less plausible when La Republica said that Pozzato had been heard on an intercepted phone call discussing an annual fee for Ferrari's services starting at 40,000 euros.
 
CONI had sought a one-year ban. But this was rejected by the tribunal this week, and it appears that this may in part have been because CONI had forgotten to enter Ferrari's name on its list of banned doctors, thereby creating a loophole wide enough for Willy Voet to drive through in a Fiat.
 
According to the excellent analysis over at the Inner Ring, Pozzato was able to successfully argue through his lawyers, Fleece, Grynne & Leggit, that he had scanned the list of banned doctors on CONI's website. Not seeing Ferrari's name, he cheerfully assumed that working with him was as innocent as popping down to the shops for a super-big tub of hair fudge.
 
Besides having his suspension extended for seven whole days beyond Tuesday's ruling, Pozzato was fined 25 per cent of the annual fee he reportedly paid Ferrari, plus 2000 euros in costs.
 
In a week that has already seen one rider stick two fingers up at the anti-doping process, it was an outcome almost as unsatisfying as it would be to learn that your doctor was charging you the price of three family sedans to write a training program. "What a farce," Pippo tweeted.

Ke BUFFONATA....

— Filippo Pozzato (@PippoPozzato) September 11, 2012

On another note, won't it be nice when all the big news is about racing again?
 
The week in …
 
… casting
 "Rhys Ifans is the favoured choice for the lead role," trumpets the Daily Express, boldly dismissing Robbie Coltrane's chances for the lead role in an upcoming film about Bradley Wiggins. "Bradley is a larger-than-life personality and his story really appeals to movie executives," the paper said.
 
… retirement plans
David Moncoutié plans to look after his kids and ride his bike "with no stress". Moncoutie was found at the back of the bunch as often as he was in a breakaway, reports French journalist Jean Francois Quenet in his mini-tribute. "He was kind of a misfit who managed to conduct a pro career because he understood the rules … But a team with 10 guys like Moncoutié wouldn't be a team. He races alone. But he was very important for the sponsor because of the TV exposure: there's always a camera at the back of the bunch too…"
 
Grischa Niermann, pictured with dolphins, is off to take up a coaching role with Rabobank's Continental squad.
 
… eBay
 "I'm so SADdle over golden bike sell-off," thunders The Sun, reporting in its signature style of 'semi-coherent man bellowing through klaxon'. The story is about Britain's double gold medallist, or as the Sun refers to her, 'Olympic and Strictly Come Dancing star Victoria Pendleton'.
 
Pendleton, according to the tabloid, planned to buy the bike she rode in her keirin gold medal win after the London Games (in fact the bike she wanted was her road training bike, according to VeloNation). But, like the daughter who returns for her first visit since leaving home to find her parents have already turned her bedroom into a pool room, when Pendleton tried to collect her bike she learned British Cycling had already auctioned it off.
 
"I was going to buy the bike, but they've bloody sold it and without telling me," Pendleton said, sounding not only SADdle but also cycloCROSS and almost as though she was about to fly off the HANDLEbar. "I don't know who sold it or who they sold it to but it's gone and now I can't have it."
Here is the BBC's sneak peek at what Queen Victoria did next:

… bling
Despite a Chinese reality show contestant's claim that it is better to cry in a BMW than laugh on a bicycle, posh bikes begin to take off in Beijing.
 
Dispatches from the Twitterverse

Worlds is happening in 0.02 yrs / 0.87 wks / 6.06 days / 145.39 hrs / 8723.20 mins / 523392.18 secs - #myCountdown

— Rohan Dennis (@RohanDennis) September 11, 2012

Long-time pro peloton observer Sheryl Crow says with certainty: "Lance trained the hardest". Just how the F would she know?

— Gerard Vroomen (@gerardvroomen) September 11, 2012

Classic YouTube
The leading contender for this year's Best Use of a Polka Dot Jersey Presentation in a Carly Rae Jepsen Themed Music Video is probably going to be hard to beat.