Jan Ullrich: Tour De France Winner Admits Doping

[Jazzy]

Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich has for the first time admitted to doping, with help from a Spanish sports doctor at the centre of a major drugs scandal.

Ullrich - the only German to win the world's toughest cycling race - was found guilty of doping in 2012 and banned for two years.

He later admitted to having had contact with Dr Eufemiano Fuentes, but he consistently denied being illegally assisted by him.

However, the 1997 Tour champion has now revealed he "received treatment" from him, as he admitted undergoing blood doping procedures.

The remarks come a few months after a similar public announcement by his greatest rival and nemesis Lance Armstrong.

In January, the seven-time Tour de France winner admitted to doping throughout his career and was subsequently stripped of his Tour titles.

Ullrich, 39, told Focus magazine: "Yes I did undergo Fuentes treatments. Almost everybody back then took performance-enhancing substances.

"I didn't take anything which the others were not taking. For me, betrayal only begins when I gain an advantage, but that was not the case."

He said he was motivated by the desire to be competing on a level playing field with his main rivals.

"In my view you can only call it cheating on my part when it is clear that I have gained an unfair advantage," he argued.

"That was not the case. All I wanted was everyone to have the same chances of winning.

"I'm not better than Lance Armstrong but no worse. The great heroes of the past are today people with flaws with which we must cope."

Ullrich, who also won gold and silver medals at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, added he used his own blood for the treatment.

He was barred from the Tour de France in 2006 amid speculation he had used illegal substances. He retired from cycling in February 2007, denying he had ever cheated.

In February 2012, he was found guilty of a doping offence by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and retroactively banned for two years from August 22, 2011.

In addition to the ban, all results after May 2005 were removed from his list of achievements.

Dr Fuentes, at the centre of a much-publicised trial in Spain earlier this year, had told a court that as well as cyclists, his clients included football players, athletes, tennis players and boxers.

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I had thought if you were found guilty of doping, you'd be banned for life. This guy is only banned for two years.

 

[Evil Eye]

I guess they wanna have some people left by the end of the day.