Cycling team T-Mobile announced on Tuesday they will investigate allegations made against two of their doctors who, it was claimed in a report on Monday, injected cyclists with erythropoietin (EPO).
Former trainer Jeff d’Hont claimed, in Monday’s edition of the German weekly paper Der Spiegel, team doctors Lothar Heinrich and Andreas Schmid administered injections of the banned blood booster in 1996.
D’Hont, a former trainer of Telekom — T-Mobile’s previous name — has published a book in Belgium that implicates Heinrich and Schmid by accusing them of administering EPO injections during the 1996 Tour de France.
Belgian d’Hont, who worked with the Telekom team from 1992 till 1996, also claimed German cycling great Jan Ullrich took EPO in 1996 and was encouraged by the team’s medical staff.
The accusations are particularly serious as Heinrich is the T-Mobile doctor and the German team dismissed Ullrich in July last year for his implication in the Operation Puerto doping scandal, which is still being investigated.
”We are going to ask the two doctors questions and to discuss with them to know what is true in what Mr d’Hont has alleged. We are going to look into the matter and then make a decision,” said Christian Frommert, a T-Mobile spokesperson.
”We are also going to try to speak with Mr d’Hont,” he added.
T-Mobile were restructured at the end of last season after the height of the scandal, and began this season promising to spearhead the fight against doping in the sport.
The team gave the job of monitoring and dope testing their riders to specialists at the University of Fribourg, supervised by Heinrich, for whom the investigation could have far-reaching consequences. — Sapa-AFP