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Saturday's EuroFile: 'Bella' speaks; Vino' concedes Ferrari link; Gerolsteiner for the Tour

By Agence France Presse
Published: Jun. 30, 2007
Jaksche won Paris-Nice in 2004.
Jaksche won Paris-Nice in 2004.
Photo: Agence France Presse (file photo)

German Jörg Jaksche, one of dozens of cyclists implicated in the Operación Puerto doping scandal that erupted last year, admitted Saturday that he used banned substances for years.

In an interview published in Saturday's edition of the German weekly Der Spiegel, Jaksche admitted his involvement in the blood-doping network run by Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, where he was known by the pseudonym "Bella."

"I'm Bella. It's my blood which was found in three bags (at Dr Fuentes offices). I was a client of Dr. Fuentes from 2005 to 2006 in Madrid," admitted the 30-year-old former T-Mobile rider.

"Fuentes was a master of concealment. None of his clients knew each other. Even within our team, you weren't really sure if the other riders went to him."

Jaksche, the 2004 Paris-Nice winner who joined the Russian second-division outfit Tinkoff in April, also implicated his former teams Polti, ONCE, CSC and Telekom in organized doping.

Jörg Jaksche
Professional Career
Teams:Polti – 1997/98Telekom – 1998-2000ONCE – 2001-‘03CSC – 2004Liberty Seguros/Astana – 2005/’06Tinkoff Credit Systems – 2007
Highlights1st - Tour Méditeranéen - 20041st - Paris-Nice – 20043rd Tour de Suisse – 200616th Tour de France – 2005
(Best finish of six Tour starts)

At Telekom from 1998 to 2000 he said "team leaders knew everything (about doping). It was a deeply embedded system."

Operación Puerto erupted in May 2006, when Spanish police raided the premises of Spanish sports doctor Fuentes and found bags of blood, banned substances and names of 200 athletes, including 60 cyclists.

Jaksche was linked to one of the codenames found on the bags of blood, but he had previously denied that the moniker "Bella Jorg" related to him.

Germany's 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich was implicated, as was Italian Ivan Basso.

Jaksche was one of the 13 riders, including Basso and Ullrich, who were prevented from riding last year's Tour de France because of their implication in the affair.

Jaksche claimed that he started taking EPO (erythropoietin) while under contract with the Italian Polti team from June 1997 and notably during the 1998 Tour de France. He said that he had also used growth hormone.

"That was my crash course," he said. "A soigneur injected me with EPO in my room. The logic is you adjust your performance level to the rest, because everyone is doing it. In cycling, you live in a parallel world."

During the 1998 Tour Jaksche claimed that EPO was hidden in the false bottom of a vacuum cleaner that they carried around in the team car.

"After all Polti, our sponsors, manufactured home appliances. Some 10,000 vials of EPO were hidden in the appliance," said Jaksche.

He alleged that the Telekom team, which employed him from 1998 to 2000, had "a deeply embedded system" of doping.

"The problem was not how to prevent doping but how to avoid it being done badly," said Jaksche.

The German rider said doping was also practiced in the Spanish ONCE team, which he rode for between 2001 and 2003.

"I was completely in the hands of the doctors and I can't even say what they did to us exactly. I'd simply hold out my arm and allow myself to be injected. It's possible that they gave me everything, I don't know and I don't want to know."

At the end of 2003, Jaksche headed for Danish outfit CSC, which is managed by former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis, who has admitted to using EPO when he won the Tour de France in 1996.

Jaksche's lawyer Michael Lehner said on Friday the German was ready to give evidence before the World Anti-Doping Agency, the UCI and legal authorities.

Vino’ resents rumors
Tour de France hopeful Alexandre Vinokourov has admitted to working with a tainted doctor but denied it was for purposes of doping.

Leader of the Kazakh-financed Astana team, Vinokourov enters the Tour as a top favorite. He admitted Saturday that he had used the services of Italian doctor Michele Ferrari, but not for medical products.

Ferrari was found guilty of sporting fraud and malpractice in 2004 before winning an appeal two years later.

"Michele Ferrari is a physical trainer but not my doctor," said Vino in Saturday's edition of French newspaper l'Equipe. "All I did was listen to people, like Mario Cipollini, who said great things. (Lance) Armstrong also worked with him. I didn't want to miss out on this experience, I contacted him."

"Working with Ferrari is not that extraordinary," he continued. "Once a month I take a test to find out what kind of form I am in physically and my training depends on those results.

"His training plans are effective and precise. Since last year I've come on a lot in the mountains and also the time-trials. I won the Vuelta and that cemented my faith in him.

"Ferrari has never offered me any medication," he said. "He is just my physical trainer and if I'm talking as openly as this it's because I've nothing to hide."

Vinokourov is in Kazakhstan for his country's national championships this weekend, but will soon be heading over to Britain for the start of the Tour in London next Saturday.

"The day that the UCI establishes an official list of doctors that we are not allowed to work with, then I'll stop. But for the moment, this list doesn't exist," said Vinokourov, who added that none of his Astana team works with Ferrari.

Astana has come under fire recently with two of its riders, Matthias Kessler and Eddy Mazzoleni being implicated in separate doping scandals.

Vinokourov believes it is part of a conspiracy to disrupt his Tour plans.

"They're really trying to tarnish our image,” he said. “It's really difficult to concentrate on the Tour de France in these conditions. I have been destabilized by all these ripples."

Vinokourov also turned his attention to Jaksche, who admitted in a newspaper interview to doping and being part of a wide doping network for many years during his career.

"Jaksche was contacted by Der Spiegel and offered lots of money. It's easy to give evidence when's there's a big cheque being dangled in front of you.

"If you're given 5000 euros to dish the dirt on someone, you're not going to do it. But if its 100,000 euros, you'll find a story to justify the amount."

Gerolsteiner
Tour de France 2007
Markus Fothen (G)Robert Forster (G)Heinrich Haussler (G)Bernhard Kohl (A)Sven Krauss (G)Ronny Scholz (G)Stefan Schumacher (G)Fabian Wegmann (G)Peter Wrolich (A)
Reserves: David Kopp (G)Volker Ordowski (G)

Schumacher makes Gerolsteiner’s Tour team
German cyclist Stefan Schumacher has been given the nod to compete in the Tour de France for the first time by his Gerolsteiner team.

The German team on Saturday named a new-look side of nine, the average age of which is 26 years.

Schumacher, winner of the Amstel Gold Race last April, won two stages of the Giro d’Italia last year and wore the leader's pink jersey for two days.