Freiburg report dumps on big name T-Mobile riders and systemic doping

These are allegations against a culture of doping in one prominent team, a culture that was almost certainly eradicated after a climactic period of exposure and scrutiny in 2006. I must stress also that these are allegations only; that they must be investigated thoroughly before firm conclusions can be drawn. For mine there are too many questions - indeed inconsistencies - surrounding exactly who took what, and where, and why some newly hired riders were considered 'outsiders' and shunned, whereas others were "in". One obvious newcomer - Sinkewitz - was inducted into the system, yet Bartko was isolated, for example.

Having said all of that, it's undeniable that we expected something to come out of it, and it's probably exactly as most of us thought: it wasn't just Ullrich (not that Jan has ever admitted it, we only have the purported DNA link and heaps - bags even - of allegations). And yet it's strange that Ullrich is implicated elsewhere, not directly with this Freiburg issue. It was a systemic issue for the team, but not a consistent one?

Experts investigating the procedures of two Freiburg University Clinic doctors who worked for cycling team T-Mobile allege German rider Andreas Kloeden doped during the 2006 Tour de France.

That's not just an allegation against Kloden, either: The issue returned to prominence last fall, when Patrik Sinkewitz said that he - and possibly others - had driven to Freiburg for illegal blood transfusions during the 2006 Tour de France, only days after team captain Jan Ullrich had been suspended for his connection to Operación Puerto. The report found that doping within the team essentially began when the team was formed and continued relatively unabated through to 2006.

The allegations go back to 1992. That's a lot of riders, some of whom are still prominent in the peleton today, indeed are current Top 10 Grand Tour favourites. It covers EPO, testosterone and blood doping, plus 'magic elixirs', the contents of which are not known.

As always, expect the worst and hope for the best!

Post Olympic wrap-up continues. Rebellin, now Schumacher post-dated and positive?

It seems like a strange, leaky system (or cistern?), this post-Olympic drug-doping-dripfeed. We get told there are a number of athletes suspected, but we can't say who because we have to be absolutely certain. And so we speculate about who may be involved. And then we get told that a cyclist is involved, and that it's the talented Italian one-day rider, Rebellin. I guess that was both not a surprise, as he seems able to pull rabbits out of hats at times, and a shock, as why would he want to sully his brilliant career?

The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has opened an investigation into Davide Rebellin as a result of a positive doping control at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. It has immediately prohibited the Italian, 37, from competing and called him to Rome for a hearing on May 4 at 12:00.

Rebellin will defend the accusations. The Italian Olympic Committee saw it as a virtue to name names early, rather than keep everything in the dark:

"We are the only Olympic committee that has released a communiqué. We are the only ones who communicated all of this with transparency. Today the Corriere della Sera newspaper wrote that 'CONI lost a silver medal, but won the transparency battle,'" a spokesman for the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) told Cyclingnews.

And then, having been prompted by the Italians, more names emerge:

Stefan Schumacher is the second cyclist confirmed to have tested positive for Erythropoietin (EPO) derivative CERA at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The German cycling federation (Bund Deutscher Radfahrer, BDR) confirmed the news of its cyclist Wednesday afternoon.

No suprise that Schumacher is caught again, of course. Allegedly, pending hearings and all that jazz. And it doesn't end with cycling, either:

Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi, the 1500-meter champion and his country's first gold medalist in track, was among three track athletes—and a half-dozen Olympians in all—snagged in the latest game of cat-and-mouse between cheaters and those who try to nail them.

Allegedly, of course.

If all of that has some stamp of authority, there's also this story about the T-Mobile team from 2006, based on absence rather than proof, and assumption rather than evidence:

How many of the T-Mobile Team went to Freiburg University Clinic for a blood transfusion during the Tour de France 2006? The German news magazine Spiegel reports that an independent commission investigating the case believes that three riders went to the clinic, but also uncovered further evidence that seven riders within the team may have had some sort of blood "manipulation". The magazine states that the commission "assumes" that Andreas Klöden, Matthias Kessler and Patrik Sinkewitz travelled to the clinic for blood transfusions on the night of the first stage of the 2006 Tour de France. There is no mention of whether the remaining four non-German riders on the team participated in the trip.

It all sounds very flimsy, indeed. And all denied, of course.

Ullrich, Pevanage, D'Hont... Rasmussen... et al

What can one add? Via CyclingNews...

On Jan and T-Mobile: Circumstantial? Unverified? Fiction?
In the recordings, Pevenage allegedly said that he visited Ullrich during a training session on Mallorca in February of this year. Ullrich then said that he was there with former teammates Andeas Klöden and Matthias Kessler, both of whom rode for Team Astana. Ullrich is said to have told Pevenage that he wanted to end his career because he didn't want "to take any more risks." Ullrich added that he was at the same hotel as his former teammates, "and I tell you, they were all there, the most important of them are still using the same stuff, EPO and all of that . Nothing has changed."

On Rasmussen: minor offence or major coverup?
Michael Rasmussen purposely lied about his whereabouts in the period before the Tour de France, making himself unavailable for doping controls, an independent committee announced on Monday in Utrecht, Holland. Rabobank Team Manager Theo de Rooij was right to remove the cyclist from the race, it said, but he should never have started in the first place. The 33 year-old Dane was sent home following stage 16 to the Col d'Aubisque.

Sinkewitz - denial is a fine thing

Sinkewitz has at times appeared naive and unaware, and at other times rash. Now he's in deep denial. On the evening of June 8, while attending a training camp in preparation for the Tour de France, Patrik Sinkewitz smeared a testosterone gel on his upper arm. "I thought, it can't hurt." But it did hurt – it got him fired from his job at Team T-Mobile, brought about the cancellation of German public broadcasting of the Tour and nearly caused his team's sponsor to pull out of its contract.

He has also dragged a few T-Mobile teammates into the muck, whether they like it or not. Michael Rogers is quoted by CN: "I haven't actually heard anything official directly from the mouth of Patrik Sinkewitz or his lawyer, so for me it's premature to respond directly to him in the press because we don't fully understand the extent of the accusations," Rogers said. "It it's true, I will be very disappointed in him. If it is true, I'll be making some very strong claims to put the record straight."

And a later clearance of Rogers by the UCI:
The UCI has confirmed that T-Mobile captain Michael Rogers "has not been implicated by his team-mate Patrik Sinkewitz." In a statement released Friday evening, the UCI said "This was revealed after the UCI examined the dossier sent by the German Federation (BDR) following the statements made by the German rider. The document sent by the BDR showed that Michael Rogers is not implicated in any way."