"I don't want to comment on individual people. I also have no influence on the decisions. I have not been asked about the story," the former Gerolsteiner team boss told the news agency dpa. Holczer was still general manager of the Russian team, where Zabel is employed as sports director, until the end of 2012.
In the investigation report of the Anti-Doping Commission of the French Senate, Zabel's doping test of 12 July 1998 was assigned a positive value for the blood doping agent EPO in the 2004 follow-up analyses. In his confession on 24 May 2007, Zabel had still stated that he had only tried EPO for one week at the 1996 Tour de France, but had not tolerated it.
It is unlikely that Zabel will actually have to fear any consequences from the controversial Russian team. The team boss is the Russian ex-professional Vyacheslav Yekimov, who was a loyal supporter of Lance Armstrong for many years in the doping racing team US Postal.
Holczer sees the fact that the names of the riders concerned have been published as "double-edged". "On the one hand, it creates uncertainty, which is helpful in the fight against doping, but on the other hand, you quickly find yourself in a legal grey area. I don't have a patent remedy either."
