It was the major scandal of the Tour de France. Shortly before the start of the 2006 Tour de France, a client list belonging to the doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, containing over 50 names, was made public, including prominent riders such as Germany’s only Tour winner, Jan Ullrich, and Italy’s cycling star, Ivan Basso. The doping headlines plunged the sport of cycling into a deep crisis. Ullrich and Basso, the two top contenders for the overall victory, were excluded from the Tour on 30 June 2006, even before the start.
Twenty years on, cycling manager Ralph Denk considers such a doping network in his sport to be out of the question. “I believe what I can rule out is that there is systematic doping as there was 20 years ago. I’m going out on a limb here, but it simply doesn’t exist. There will always be a few bad apples when money is involved,” said Denk ahead of the start of the 113th Tour de France on Saturday in Barcelona.
Ullrich believes in today’s generation
Ullrich, who had only admitted his guilt after a long delay, had made similar comments in the past. “A system involving widespread doping is no longer possible. The world governing body also has much greater enforcement powers and is now in a very strong financial position. For me, the performances are explainable. (...) I also believe that today’s generation has learnt from our mistakes. Professional cycling has changed,” Ullrich said two years ago in an interview with dpa.
The Fuentes scandal also marked the end of Ullrich’s career. This was followed by investigations by the public prosecutor’s office and house searches. Subsequently, further scandals came to light; Ullrich’s long-standing rival, Lance Armstrong, also later made a full confession regarding doping. Sponsors and TV broadcasters withdrew from cycling, and cycle races were cancelled due to a lack of funding.
An additional 20 million for doping tests
Cycling has learnt its lessons from this, according to Denk. “I would go so far as to say that cycling has the most rigorous anti-doping testing system compared to the rest of elite sport. Another first is that, on top of the tests carried out by WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency), professional cycling also allocates its own budget to organise additional tests. We as a team contribute to this, but the riders themselves also contribute a portion of their prize money, and the race organisers contribute as well,” explained Denk, citing a figure of 20 million euros as a rough estimate.
“There is the ‘blood passport’ – a concept pioneered by cycling and now adopted by other sports – which can provide indirect evidence of doping. And I believe that a great deal is being done,” added Denk.
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