German cyclist Jan Ullrich was supplied with a potent cocktail of performance-enhancing drugs by the Spanish doctor accused of running a doping ring that has left the sport in crisis, it was reported in Germany on Saturday.
Former Olympic champion Ullrich, who was barred from competing in this year’s Tour de France after being implicated in the scandal, was given EPO, steroids and human growth hormone by Madrid physician Eufemiano Fuentes.
The allegations were made by anti-doping campaigner Werner Franke in an interview to be published in Saturday’s Hamburg Morning Post.
”I’ve seen a 50-page dossier put together by police in Spain investigating Fuentes and what’s in it is crazy,” Franke said.
Ullrich and other incriminated cyclists had used ”EPO, four different anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and different anti-inflammatories,” Franke told the paper.
Franke said there was clear evidence of links between Ullrich and Fuentes. ”Anyone who tries to say that Jan Ullrich was never a client of Fuentes has got to be joking,” Franke said.
Franke said earlier this week Ullrich paid €35 000 over a 12-month period to Fuentes.
”I inspected the file on Jan Ullrich compiled [by Spanish police] in Madrid and all I can say is that it’s been some time since I’ve seen so much bad stuff,” Franke told local television station Rheinmaintv.
”Some of the people in his entourage are truly diabolical to advise him to take these products and to put him in contact with the Spanish doctor.”
Franke was responsible for exposing the culture of systematic doping of athletes in the former East Germany after the Berlin Wall came down.
Ullrich, the 1997 Tour winner, protests his innocence and denies taking drugs. — Sapa-AFP