The coach Paolo Slongo defends the Italian rider Vincenzo Nibali. He called the alleged links between the Tour de France winner and Michele Ferrari “nonsense”. He says that journalists are not telling the truth and that their claims are based on nothing.

"I saw the articles, the one in La Repubblica. It’s not a serious thing, but something that someone has invented. It ruins my image. If you don’t know someone, you can be misled to thinking it’s true. La Repubblica‘s journalists have been sued, so we’ll see how they respond", he told Velonews.

The newspaper La Repubblica told about the Padua case. In this edition, we read that there are many athletes who have links with Dr. Michele Ferrari. It reported too that Slongo was "in frequent contact" with the Italian doctor. The latter responded to media allegations.

"He would have, according to the investigators, ‘frequent contact,’" wrote Ferrari. "Yes, of course, every morning, in front of the buffet breakfast at the hotel Parador del Teide, with the topic: ‘Is it better to have eggs with bacon or muesli with yogurt?’"

Slongo defends himself: “No, no. In the end, that’s a piece of nonsense, in my opinion too. Everyone writes what they want. One time, when I went there with Liquigas, he was also there, but that I worked with, wrote an e-mail, or called … La Repubblica says that there are many exchanges, but I’ve never done anything. I read it, too, but it almost had me laughing when they come up with something like that.”