- HOT TOPICS:
- An American start for the Giro? •
- 2010 Routes: Giro | California | TdF •
- LA doc guilty on all counts
Hospital suspends doctors in T-Mobile probe
German doctors Lothar Heinrich and Andreas Schmid, implicated in systematic doping by a former Telekom team cyclist, were suspended on Tuesday by their employer, the University Hospital Freiburg.
"This measure was taken in consultation with the two interested parties: it is provisional, the time for the independent commission of inquiry to make its conclusions known," the hospital said in a statement, adding that they were ending their association with the team that evolved out of Telekom, T-Mobile.
Heinrich and Schmid ended their association with T-Mobile after revelations by a former Telekom masseur accusing them of organized doping through the use of the banned blood-boosting drug EPO.
The two doctors were further implicated on Monday when former rider Bernt Dietz revealed he took doping products when he was under contract with Telekom from 1994 to 1998 - which saw teammate Bjarne Riis win the 1996 Tour de France and then Jan Ullrich take the 1997 edition.
University Hospital Freiburg is the most reputable in Germany for the practice of sporting medicine with most of the country's top athletes under the care of their doctors.
Meanwhile, former Telekom cyclist Christian Henn, a bronze medallist at the 1988 Olympics and now director sportif at Gerolsteiner, followed Dietz's admissions on Tuesday by claiming that he too took doping substances when competing for the team between 1995 and 1999.
