(Subtitled 'Here we go again')
In a startling development, world respected German scientist, Werner Franke announced his absolute condemnation and outrage at the 2007 Tour de France victory of Spain's Alberto Contador.
Franke never pulled a punch in describing Contador's win as (MS NBC):
"the greatest swindle in sporting history," according to a report by Agence France Presse.
Werner Franke is a honored German biochemist. In the 1990s Franke and his East German wife Brigitte Berendonk, exposed the East Germany doping machine, well documented in the book 'Faust's Gold'. This expose' developed under great peril, as the GDR Stasi continued to operate. Through perseverance, courage, and tremendous commitment Franke and Berendonk exposed the systematic doping of young athletes, including many girls by the GDR Gov't.
When Franke claims Contador defrauded cycling, it is comparable to Carl Sandburg saying Chicago is a big city. The world pays attention to people who accomplished great things. From the MS NBC piece:
Werner Franke, a molecular cell biologist at the German Cancer Research Center and key whistleblower against doping in then-East Germany, said he has documents in his possession from the Spanish police's blood doping investigation named Operation Puerto involving Eufemiano Fuentes, the doctor credited with engineering doping programs for professional athletes.
"The name of this Mr Contador appears on several occasions on the court and police documents," Franke told German television station ZDF, according to AFP.
"All of this has been simply concealed and hidden under the carpet whilst the name Contador was erased from the list of supicious riders."
Franke also told ZDF that he has a detailed list of banned products that were used by Contador. Those products appear in sworn statements following the raid on Fuentes' medical offices, AFP said.
Franke claims Contador used:
- Insulin (anabolic)
- HMG-lepori (stimulates testosterone production)
- TNG (for asthma)
Franke continues:
"All of this has been covered up, at least in Spain."
Contador, meanwhile, has tried to explain his checkered past:
Contador, 24, has denied any connection to Fuentes.
After Saturday's time trial, he told reporters, "I was in the wrong team at the wrong time and somehow my name got among the documents, but the UCI corrected the mistake and now I've got no link to Puerto."
Contador missed last year's Tour when his former team Liberty Seguros was disqualified because he and four other riders were implicated in Operation Puerto. Contador said his name mistakenly turned up in the Puerto file, and cycling authorities attested to that.
Dick Pound and WADA appear to be getting involved in the Puerto issue:
"This investigation may have gone away in Spain but we are currently working with the UCI on going through 6,000 pages of documentation gathered from the Operation Puerto investigation," Pound said.
So, the Tour de France degenerates into a morass of charges, counter-charges, positive doping tests and excuses. Sound familiar?
Since LeMond last won, doping has turned cycling and the Tour in particular to (as we said) a bag of blood, and a pile of syringes. Each and every Tour winner carries suspicions of drug-cheating.
WADA is correct; the world needs a summit to restore the integrity and credibility of pro cycling.
Let's just say I believe Franke, and Contador has an awful lot of asterisks next to his name, but . . .
Franke has actually been enjoined from speaking about the Ullrich doping case, because he let a few unsubstantiated accusations fly last year. He's obviously a smart guy, and competent, but he's got a bit of the Dick Pound quickdraw problem.
Posted by: Softie | 07/31/2007 at 17:38
From The Nation:
Yeah, I wondered about Franke's trigger. Obviously he has earned respect, but he over-stated the case as 'the biggest swindle'.
I see the blog has changed colors. How did this happen? I was playing around with the colors at work, and suddenly boom!
Posted by: GRG51 | 07/31/2007 at 20:54
Let's just let everyone and anyone dope/cheat at the Tour that way at least you know where you stand and it's still and amazing feat and race of endurance.
Posted by: Henrick | 08/09/2007 at 12:15
Werner Franke has always been spot on in his well-founded accusations. The injunction against him just prevented him from further speaking the truth. However, this is just temporary as his claims against Ullrich are turning out to be correct yet again.
Posted by: Gary | 09/28/2007 at 19:42
Franke is not respected over here in Europe, he is a klovn who loves to peform on public tv. He just lost in court as well, for spreading lies.
"Operacion Puerto. Ullrich asked a German court to issue a temporary injunction against Franke in August 2006. Franke appealed, saying that he was expressing his right to freedom of speech. But the court ruled that he had violated Ullrich's rights, and upheld the gag order"
Posted by: Jensen | 09/10/2008 at 05:28
Ullrich commited perjury and paid 250.000€ so the suit was discontinued and Franke was told not to speak about it. So another suit take place about commiting perjury greetings from Marion Jones... still in progress. Werner Franke published the documents of the operation puerto in the internet... google is your friend. Sadly we can summ up, Werner Franke is correct again. He also discloses the racketeering in Freiburg...
Posted by: Jochen | 01/15/2010 at 05:47
I see the blog has changed colors. How did this happen? I was playing around with the colors at work, and suddenly boom!
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Posted by: ugg outlet store | 10/29/2010 at 01:12
Werner Franke claimed that Ullrich spent 25.000€ on Doping Drugs. Ullrich sued him for that, and by the time of the trial Franke had evidence that Ullrich had spent WAY MORE, the hole thing cost Ullrich a lot of money and reputation, I guess...
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