THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING »

Get the VeloNews Email Newsletter FREE

  Learn More | Archive
Home » Top Stories » News and Features »

German 'cross rider suspended; Doctor faces charges

By The Associated Press
Published: Oct. 9, 2006

Berlin - A rider was suspended Sunday and the team doctor faces court for reportedly dispensing performance-enhancing drugs on the German cyclo-cross team Stevens.

The case will be the first handled under strict anti-doping regulations passed by the German Cycling Federation allowing it to take action without a positive test.

''Stevens has a license from us. Our rules have been in effect since Aug. 31 _ this will be our precedence case,'' federation president Rudolf Scharping said.Stevens suspended rider Johannes Sickmueller after a report by the Suddeutsche Zeitung daily about widespread doping on the team.

Court charges will be filed Monday by the German Cycling Federation against team doctor Til Steinmeier, who is accused of dispensing EPO and other performance-boosting drugs to several riders through private prescriptions.Scharping said the Hamburg doctor will be charged with breaking German medical laws and other violations.

Bundesliga soccer club Hamburger SV, which had used Steinmeier as an internal medicine specialist, said it will sever relations with the doctor.

The Suddeutsche reported that a doctor who worked under Steinmeier said he was asked to switch urine samples at a race in 2005. Steinmeier's patients' records implicated several other riders, according to the newspaper.

Sickmueller denied the accusations.

''I can't say anything about it. I don't have anything to do with those things,'' Sickmueller said.

Germany's cycling federation passed the tough anti-doping laws under pressure from major sponsors and German television, which threatened to drop the sport of cycling if it didn't clean up its act.

The scandal-ridden sport has had numerous top riders - including Tour de France winners Floyd Landis and Jan Ullrich - accused of doping in the past year.

Scharping said the cycling federation's philosophy was that with enough evidence anyone involved with doping will be removed from the sport even without a positive test.