La Gazzetta names 38 riders as working with Ferrari

Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport have published the names of 38 riders alleged to have worked with doping doctor Michele Ferrari.

Among the names are 17 riders associated with Astana, including team boss Alexandre Vinokourov and former rider Roman Kreuziger (now with Tinkoff-Saxo) who is currently under investigation by the International Cycling Union (UCI) for bio-passport irregularities found during his time with the team.

La Gazzetta reported earlier this week that the Padua inquiry investigators had photographs of Ferrari attending an Astana team training camp in 2013.

The UCI is due to rule today on the future of Astana, whose WorldTour licence is under review after two doping cases at the Kazakhstan registered team and three in its Continental feeder team this year.

The full report has been handed over to the Italian Olympic Committee [CONI] and the UCI has requested to see it before making a final decision on Astana's licence.

Also reported by La Gazzetta of the four-year Padua inquiry is that now retired Vuelta a Espana (2007) and Giro d'Italia (2009) champion Denis Menchov allegedly paid $75,000 per year for Ferrari's services.

Other riders named are Giovanni Visconti (Movistar), Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida), Alexander Kolobnev (Katusha), Marco Marcato (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).

"I never had any sort of connection with Dr. Ferrari," said Mercato. "I never knew this man, I have never met him and I have never talked with him.

"I want to defend my image which is strongly affected by this article. I am available to the authorities to answer all the questions and to prove my innocence in this matter."

The 38 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 (Rus), Evgeni Petrov, Yaroslav Popovych, Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa), Ivan Rovny, Egor Silin and Alexandre Vinokourov.