More on the cycling mafia

After posting yesterday about Tyler Hamilton's comments about a pro-cycling mafia, a friend emailed me the following comments that I think are interesting:

I would add two things to your article.  The first exhibit would be Armstrong's infamous chase-down at the Tour (de France) of Filipo Simeoni, who had testified against Michele Ferrari.  Armstrong, who was in yellow at the time, said in the interview, that he was "protecting the interests of the peloton."  Not too hard to read between the lines to see what he meant.

Second would be the fact that at last year's Giro (de Italia), Filipo Simeoni (who was the Italian champion at the time) was not even invited, while Armstrong was paid to be there.  Zomengan even mentioned that "Simeoni should have talked to Armstrong."

The Omerta lives in the peloton, and Lance was and probably still is its greatest enforcer.

I inserted the links in his comments. The articles are definitely interesting in the context of Tyler's comments. Was Lance Armstrong protecting the interests of the peloton because the peloton were working with Ferrari who is known to help cyclists use EPO? To my knowledge, Lance never explains his comment.

In any case, maybe Jeffrey Novitzky will want to hear Simeoni's view of the peloton mafia. My guess is that he won't need to go to Italy to get the picture of what's happening...