Oct 3, 2007 0
Yes, its only for charity but Der Kaiser is back on the roads. He won’t be racing anytime soon, but here is a glimpse for old times sake. He is riding his own “Jan Ullrich” brand bikes which have fat tubes in the winter and get skinner in July. Jan, send me over a bike so I can test it, help get the new Bike Reviews section going strong.
Mar 10, 2007 0
With all of the sound and fury signifying nothing. That is a good way to summarize Operation Puerto which come Monday will be archived. The investigation failed to turn out any solid evidence against anyone that was remotely associated with the case.
Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, Fransico Mancebo were barred from the Tour de France based on thin evidence. Liberty Seguros dropped their sponsorship of their ProTour team. Cycling was cast in the shadow of doping once again during its peak exposure time. This combined with Landis’ testosterone issue and you have a body blow for cycling in general.
Feb 26, 2007 0
(pic from Yahoo News)
“I am ending my active career,” Ullrich said.
He criticized the way he had been treated by cycling officials in Germany and Switzerland and by the German media.
“I feel like a serious criminal although I have nothing to reproach myself,” he said.
Ullrich said he was still fit and had received offers from seven teams to race this season, but had decided to move on.
Jan Ullrich announced his retirement today at a press conference in Hamburg, Germany. Ullrich will now take on a new job as Media Consultant/Advisor for the Volksbank team.
Ullrich’s retirement comes despite having numerous opportunities to get back to racing this year.
“I could ride again immediately, I could get a license, I am fit, as fit as last year and could immediately have a team. I have seven offers, including ProTour teams.” –cyclingnews.com
Feb 22, 2007 0
(Jan Ullrich bikes…discounts available?)
Jan Ullrich has scheduled a press conference for next Monday and speculation has been ripe on just what Der Kaiser will talk about. Rumors have been heavily leaning on an Ullrich retirement announcement since Ullrich has yet to get a license from any national federation.
Nov 29, 2006 2
2006 was the craziest year for drugs in cycling ever. The craziness of Operation Puerto probably eclipsed anything that happened in 1998 with the Festina Affair. Now that Ivan Basso and several others are cleared of involvement from Operation Puerto for the time being the hot news is who is signing for whom.
Jan Ullrich is talking with sponsors and teams, while Tyler Hamilton has already signed with Tinkoff. “Il Bufalo” (Italian spelling) Gutierrez is signing with a small Italian team to get back to the Giro and similarly Santiago Botero is signing with a smalll Columbian team. Genevieve Jenson is getting ready to comeback. On top of all this the Tour de France will feature a prologue in London that could be won by David Millar the man who made 2006 his comeback year. Manolo Saiz may be back in the ProTour with the Astana team or some variation. The list goes on and on of riders who are making a comeback either from being cleared of involvement in Operation Puerto or having served their suspension and returning to cycling.
Nov 13, 2006 0
(pic from flickr, UPDATE: Actually this is from Graham Watson)
Ivan Basso wasted no time climbing on a new Trek and donning the Discovery Channel kit after word of his signing was released to the world last week. To say that Ivan is motivated for 2007 is an understatement. Basso is already dressed in Discovery Channel blue and has the matching blue SiDis. This move must have been close for a while since the matching blue SiDis are not a standard color in their 2007 lineup. They need to be custom made and the turn-around time on those must be more than a few days.
Basso is probably counting down the days until the December 3rd Discovery Team training camp. No cold nights in the Norwegian tundra this year. Just some warmer nights getting to know a team that is probably just as eager to meet him.
Oct 10, 2006 2
Tuttobiciweb reports that Discovery Channel has given a contract offer to Jan Ullrich. The contract is to make Jan Ullrich team leader for the next two years. This contract offer so far seems to have no regard for the various legal issues surrounding Der Kaiser. Ullrich may be cleared of his Operation Puerto involvement since the court proceeding need to go through another court before any of the evidence in Operation Puerto can be used to implicate any cyclist. Jan may be in the clear for the time being, but he still needs to get his Swiss racing license renewed for next year. The process may be a bit messy since Ullrich seemed to have the most evidence that showed a link with Efuaminao Fuentes and personal coach Rudy Pevenage.
Aug 22, 2006 0
Ivan Basso’ case will be argued next week on August 29th in front of CONI. It seems that there is a bit of doubt into the evidence given by the Spanish Guardia Civil related to Basso’ involvment in Operation Puerto. Despite of a possible incriminating fax that lists Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich the President of the FCI (Italian Cycling Federation) Renato Di Rocco has doubts:
“From the documents I have seen, there are not sufficient elements to accuse [Basso].”
Questioned on the fax, Di Rocco cmments: “This fax we knew of before and according to me it serves to show that Basso can’t be ‘Birillo’, the number ‘2′ and the other times be ‘Ivan Basso.’ A person that uses codes would always use codes.” [i.e., if Basso is Birillo, why would Fuentes suddenty start referring to him as Basso?]
Seems like there may be some leniency for Basso, while Ullrich is getting skewered in the German media.
Jul 21, 2006 0
(pic from Eurosport)
Jan Ullrich was shown no love by T-Mobile management. After lying about his relationship with Dr. Fuentes and the cloud surrounding Operation Puerto, T-Mobile have given the boot to Der Kaiser. Jan Ullrich is now out of a job and he is PO’d about the way in which T-Mobile informed him of the news.
“I am very disappointed about the fact the decision was not communicated to me personally but by T-Mobile’s lawyers in a fax,” Ullrich was quoted as saying. “The dismissal by T-Mobile is not acceptable for me.”
“I think it’s a shame that I have given so many years of good service and for all that I have done for the team, that I be seen as just a fax number.”
Welcome to the corporate world Jan, sometimes unpleasent news is delivered unpleasently.
Jul 4, 2006 0
Details are coming out on the case against Ivan Basso as Gazzetta Dello Sport reports. In the case against Basso, his name is never mentioned, but it is derived from code words used between Fuentes and Labarta. During the Giro D’Italia Labarta mentions to Fuentes “You have the first and second in the overall GC”. The border police have also uncovered a Swiss Bank Account allegedly used by Basso.
The 38 page page document from Operation Puerto decribes the system of doping that Eifemiano Fuentes created along with Jose Luis Merino Batres. The system is detailed in a 500 page documet of instructions that the Guardia Civil uncovered.
At this tme several Spanish journalist have different pieces of the overall 38 page document that details all of the counts against the 13 riders kicked out of the Tour. Specifically, most of the press have the transcripts of wire-tapped phone conversations taken by the Guardia Civil. In the investigation of the labs of the doctors, large quantities of doping products were found along will bags of blood. The bags of blood contain the code names that matched up with each cyclist.
The name of Ivan Basso comes up five times in the 38 page document but is not with any specific code reference or with any other code name attached. Other members of the CSC squad are never mentioned. The Maglia Rosa’s name was pulled from a telephone conversation that took place on the 14th of May at 9:46 PM between Fuentes and Labarta the DS of Comunidad Valenciana. The two reference the stage of the Giro that finished at Maielletta with a victory by Ivan Basso. The document describes that the two used a “familiar friendly tone” when talking about the stage winner. “A stranger won, Basso, Ivan Basso” says Fuentes. Labarta replies “A certain Ivan Basso”
They continued by emphasizing the great effort by Jose Enrique Gutierrez Cataluna another patient of Fuentes who finished third Then talked about the less brilliant performance by Michele Scarponi.
Labarta: “Great work kid, first and second they are guaranteed Basso and Guti (nickname for Guitierrez)”
Fuentes: “Caspita” (means wow, good heavens, or whew)
Labarta: “Wow… the first and second”
As a result of this dialog the Guardia Civil could deduce that Basso was working with Fuentes. With this point they could then try and match up Basso’s name with the various code words used on the blood bags and other communication. This time they reference a conversation from the previous day’s stage that arrived in Saltara. Labarta called Fuentes at 8:02 PM on May 13th to talk about the great performance of the “Buffalo” Jose Gutierrez’s nickname in Spain. Gutierrez placed 4th and Fuentes was amazed. They talked about the finish of the riders in that stage: “Savoldelli (2nd), yes and then after 16 second comes Birillo with Simoni at 20 seconds Zapatero (identified as Scarponi) and 24 second Uno (Unai Osa) All very good. I want to say that all of the riders that we help and in which we have an interest are racing and doing well”
That day’s stage was a 14 second victory by Rik Verbrugge who was followed by Savoldelli with Il Buffalo at 14 seconds, then Rebellin, Basso, Gonchar and Simoni at 16 seconds.
There was no reference to Gonchar or Rebellin in the conversation. The Gazzetta says that it is not definate that “Birillo” would be Basso since they only mentioned Simoni and Savoldelli by name, and there are other riders that finished with those groups. The investigators say that the code names and other riders are part of a larger case overall.
In the third page of the report the investigators compile a list of numers and code names that matched up to bads of blood plasma which were enclosed in a refrigerator in the laboratory of Fuentes. These were used for tranfusion The number 2 was associated with Birillo (the number 1 was “Jan”, which could be Ullrich. In the document there are also phone calls from Fuentes to Rudy Pevenage)
The forth point is on page 15 which details a document with the heading Biomediasport Canarias S.A. trained by Eufemiano Fuentes. On the back of the document there is a list of “collborators and participants the Festival that takes place in May. The Guardia Civil referrs to the Festval as the Giro D’Italia, and the names listed include Basso, Ullrich, Scarponi, Gutierrez and Marcos Serrano who all raced in the Giro. This is another piece of evidence that helps to tie the relationship witht erides and Fuentes.
The fifth point against Basso deals with payment for products and counseling. There are no documents explicit to Basso. The only connection is a handwritten annotation that appears in a document (marked from number 91): Birillo: lleva (door) 2 x plasma; 3x HM (gonadotropina); 10 parches (doilies of testosterone); codigo cuenta suiza (code Swiss account).
This ties payment for services to a Swiss Bank Account.
These are some of the accusations and the ties with which the Operation Puerto documents have implicated Ivan Basso. This report was translated from the Gazzetta dello Sport report
