Team threatens lawsuits over Bartolini reports.
The ongoing 'doping' saga surrounding leading motocross rider Andrea Bartolini has been given an extra spin following the publication of a statement from his Berni Honda team threatening legal action over misrepresentation.
Bartolini was found guilty by the sport's governing body, the FIM, of allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs during the 2001 season, and banned from competition until later this month. However, representatives from the Berni operation deny that the word 'doping' is an accurate summation of the situation, as the following statement reveals.
The ongoing 'doping' saga surrounding leading motocross rider Andrea Bartolini has been given an extra spin following the publication of a statement from his Berni Honda team threatening legal action over misrepresentation.
Bartolini was found guilty by the sport's governing body, the FIM, of allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs during the 2001 season, and banned from competition until later this month. However, representatives from the Berni operation deny that the word 'doping' is an accurate summation of the situation, as the following statement reveals.
"In relation to inaccuracies carried in recent days by organs of information, the Team Berni Honda Racing intends to clarify that the rider Andrea Bartolini found himself in state of disqualification up to 12 February 2002, because 'he has not showed the documentation relative to the assumed medicines', as textually affirms the motivation of the action emanated on 5 October 2001 by the FIM Disciplinary Court.
"It is therefore absolutely wrong and misleading to use the adjective 'doping' associated to the same rider. The Berni Honda Racing team will reserve the right to legally act against those people that, through the press, make an attempt to dishonour the team and Mr Bartolini."
Bartolini will resume riding later this month and expects to be a frontrunner in the 2002 world championship.
