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From the Wires: Raids find no links to Ullrich; Stapleton backs Rogers

By Agence France Presse
Published: Nov. 1, 2007

Raids: No links to Ullrich
A raid by German federal investigators on the premises of two doctors who have admitted supplying cyclists with doping products found no evidence linking them to former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich, according to German press reports on Thursday.

Senior federal criminal investigator Wolfgang Maier said Wednesday’s raids on Freiburg University's clinic, plus the homes of doctors Lothar Heinrich and Andreas Schmid, found nothing to link 1997 Tour winner Ullrich to the medical facility.

Ullrich, 33, has been under a cloud of suspicion since he was sacked by T-Mobile in July 2006, having been linked to a doping scandal in Spain.

T-Mobile severed ties with former team doctors Heinrich and Schmid this summer after they admitted in May to helping dope cyclists. The University of Freiburg, where the pair worked, also terminated their contracts.

Maier said Wednesday's searches were aimed at confiscating records from the doctors' time with the cycling team.

The searches came a week after former T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz gave five hours of evidence to the German cycling federation's (BDR) disciplinary committee.

Sinkewitz was sacked by T-Mobile during this year's Tour after he tested positive for abnormal levels of testosterone during training and has been co-operating with the BDR in a bid to get leniency for his expected ban.—Agence France Presse

T-Mobile sticks by Rogers
Australian cycling ace Michael Rogers will face the consequences if is ever proved that he was involved in doping at T-Mobile, said the German outfit's American manager Bob Stapleton.

However, Stapleton, speaking to Die Welt newspaper in an article to be published Thursday, is standing firmly behind Rogers as the Aussie deflects the flak from allegations leveled at the German team by Patrik Sinkewitz.

Sinkewitz has been giving evidence to the German cycling federation following a positive test for the banned male hormone testosterone prior to the 2007 Tour de France.

The German ace, who rode with Rogers at their former team Quick Step, is believed to have alleged that several Tour de France team members visited a Freiburg University clinic days before the 2006 Tour started, and that blood transfusions took place during the Tour.

Rogers is the only rider from that Tour team who is still riding for T-Mobile. However, Stapleton is giving the former three-time world time trial champion the benefit of the doubt — at least for the moment.

"What we know is that Rogers was part of a very strictly controlled anti-doping program in 2007, and that he has complied entirely with our own anti-doping rules," Stapleton told Die Welt.

"Michael has told us he was not involved in the doping practices which Sinkewitz has described. If the facts say otherwise, we will act and take our responsibilities."

Rogers joined T-Mobile in 2006 after playing a leading role in helping former French cycling icon Richard Virenque to win a record seventh King of the Mountains title.

Soon after the Australian, who hails from Canberra, was forced into some backpedaling by the German team after it was revealed — and confirmed by Rogers — that he had been working with Italian sports doctor Michele Ferrari, who has stood trial on charges of administering banned substances to athletes.

Stapleton meanwhile believes that 2008 will be a "decisive" year for cycling and for the future of the T-Mobile team - which he is aiming to return to respectability following some unsavory revelations.

"This coming year, as well as testing all our riders' blood samples for every kind of manipulation we are also testing them for every other detectable substance, like growth hormones and EPO," he said.

According to Sport1.de, T-Mobile's sponsors, Deutsche Telekom, are starting to put some distance between itself and the team it has sponsored since 1991.

A confession by CSC team manager Bjarne Riis, who admitted in May that he had used the banned blood booster EPO throughout his career with first Telekom, then T-Mobile, has done little to charm the team's sponsor. —Agence France Presse