Tour de France 2009

T-Mobile pulls Tour advertising in Germany

France24 | T-Mobile withdraw Tour TV sponsorship

T-Mobile has withdrawn its sponsorship of the Tour de France TV coverage in Germany.

The company is apparently trying to distance itself from admissions by former riders for its team (then called Telekom) that team members, including 1996 Tour winner Bjarne Riis, used EPO and other banned performance enhancers while racing for the squad.

T-Mobile has pledged to sponsor its team through 2010, the end of its current contract.

In case anyone misses the symbolism, the company has asked that the money be used to strengthen the German anti-doping agency instead.

Former T-Mobile star Jan Ullrich, who won the Tour in 1997, has never admitted to doping, but retired this year after being linked to Operación Puerto. He was turned down for an audience with German Chancellor Angela Merkel today, where he apparently hoped “ ‘rehabilitate’ the reputation of Ullrich and recall his merits and performances.”

Tour organizers: Bjarne who?

BBC SPORT | Tour takes Riis off winners list

Tour de France organizers are telling the press that Bjarne Riis has been stricken from the Tour winners list after his admission last month that he used EPO for 6 seasons, including 1996, when he won the Tour.

Tour spokesman Philippe Sudres said: "We have removed him from the list because of the doping admission.

"We consider philosophically that he can no longer claim to have won."

Two issues: 1) A quick look at the official Tour website shows that Riis is right there were he's always been, atop the 1996 Tour.

2) Who, then, deserves the win? Jan Ullrich, who was 2nd in '96 riding alongside Riis at EPO-fueled Telekom? Richard Virenque in 3rd, riding for Festina, which gave us the most scandalous Tour since 1904?

The cynic in me wonders if this is a first step toward eventually declaring that the 2006 Tour had no winner. Some Tour officials have already said they don't consider Floyd Landis last year's winner, and now with Oscar Pereiro refusing to take a DNA test to clear up speculation that he's “Urko” in the Operación Puerto athlete files, organizers may prefer to have no winner to having an appointed and controversial winner.

German officials say Ullrich DNA in Fuentes fridge; ProTour embraces DNA tests

NBCSports.com | ProTour bike teams commit to DNA testing

So it looks like the other shoe may have dropped from Jan Ullrich's retirement last month. German officials announced yesterday that a DNA sample they took from Ullrich was a match for some of the refrigerated blood recovered from an Operación Puerto raid. The Bonn prosecutor said charges are likely to be filed “relatively soon,” for fraud or for violating German medical regulations.

Ullrich's lawyers are saying that even a DNA match is no proof of doping. That is strictly true, in the same sense that a DNA match on Monica Lewinsky's blue dress was not strictly proof of oral sex. If in fact Ullrich's blood was in Eufemiano Fuentes' refrigerator, then Ullrich clearly lied when he said he didn't know Fuentes, and clearly was receiving medical treatments from a doctor whose specialty appears to have been sports doping.

On a related note, the UCI chose today to announce that all 20 ProTour teams and a large majority of riders have agreed in principle to DNA testing. Six riders reportedly refused to join in, but should suffer no consequences. For now, at least.

Ullrich hangs up cleats without license or contract

Bloomberg.com | Ullrich, 1997 Tour de France Champ, Quits Amid Probe

Jan Ullrich, who won the 1997 Tour and was 2nd four times, announced his retirement from pro cycling today, amid continuing problems stemming from his alleged involvement in Operación Puerto.

Ullrich was among the riders excluded from the 2006 Tour the day before the prologue. He was dropped by T-Mobile as a result, and is under investigation by both the German and Swiss cycling federations.

“All these wrong allegations really put me down,” the 33- year-old German said today at a press conference in Hamburg broadcast by n-tv. “My career as an active cyclist is definitely over.”

Ullrich said he has taken a job as consultant and representative to Austria's Volksbank team.

In his career, Ullrich never finished the Tour de France lower than 4th place. In 2005, his most recent Tour, he was 3rd behind Lance Armstrong and Ivan Basso, another rider implicated in Operación Puerto, but who is now racing for Discovery Channel after being cleared by the Italian cycling federation.

Also:

JanUllrich.de | Jan Ullrich sattelt um (in German)

VeloNews | 'I never cheated,' says Ullrich as he announces retirement

“I never once cheated as a cyclist ... I still don't understand why I was not allowed to compete in the Tour last year.”

Also lists his full palmares, including a Vuelta win in 1999, two world time-trial championships, an Olympic road gold, and two overall victories in the Tour of Switzerland.

Taking the DeLorean back to 1998

Peleton 3,
originally uploaded by conibonjovi.

Somebody posted photos from the Tour's 1998 visit to Ireland today. That was, of course, the Tour made infamous by the Festina affair, and eventually won by Marco Pantani.

I see a few recognizable faces here, and in shots of the body of the peloton here and here. It would be very cool if you could tag the photo with notes of riders you recognize.

Also, does anyone know which stage this is? I think that's Chris Boardman in yellow, which means it's Stage 1 or the beginning of Stage 2, when he crashed out. The pictures are marked as “March 2004”, which is obviously wrong.

Some help: the 1998 review from letour.fr, including team rosters.

I promise no more games like this once there's some actual racing...

Mancebo to join Hamilton, Ullrich at Tinkoff?

Eurosport | Mancebo receives Tinkoff offer

At this point, maybe it should just name itself the Operación Puerto squad, but the new Tinkoff Credit Systems team looks likely to sign a top crop of riders, many of whom were named in the Spanish doping investigation.

Tinkoff has apparently already signed (but not announced the signing of) Tyler Hamilton. Now they have a 1.2 million euro offer on the table to AG2R's Francisco Mancebo, who said he would hang up his bike after being implicated in the investigation and withdrawn on the eve of the 2006 Tour. Mancebo now has a fallback position if AG2R follows through on Vincent Lavenu's statement that the team will drop him.

Tinkoff is also reportedly pursuing 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich, also named in the investigation.

T-Mobile angry at Basso signing

Eurosport | T-Mobile slam Discos over Basso

T-Mobile, who dumped Jan Ullrich, his personal coach, and most of their team management in the wake of the Operación Puerto investigation, says Discovery Channel is violating an agreement between teams by signing 2006 Giro winner Ivan Basso, formerly of CSC.

“We are astonished at the move of Ivan Basso to Discovery,” the German outfit announced in a statement. “We find it inconceivable that they have agreed to sign him, as he must first prove his total innocence against the allegations made against him, just like Jan Ullrich, and only then should he be able to look for a team.”

Discovery Channel director Johan Bruyneel says the team and Basso consulted 4 “specialist lawyers -- a Swiss, a Frenchman, a Spaniard, and an Italian -- and they informed us there was nothing to stop us signing Basso.”

Investigators search Ullrich's home

Eurosport | Ullrich's house raided

Jan Ullrich is going to have a hell of a mess to clean up when he gets back from his honeymoon with new wife Sara.

A German investigative team searched his house in Switzerland, that of his manager in Hamburg, and 8 other houses.

The investigators went because “former athlete Barbara Bannenberg” (I'm thinking Helen Lovejoy from The Simpsons) complained that Ullrich, former teammate Oscar Sevilla, and coach Rudy Pevenage were guilty of “betrayal of their employees.”

Here in America, that will usually get you a corner office.

Ullrich won a libel case against Dr. Werner Franke, who said Ullrich had paid 35,000 euro a year to Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. The ruling forbids Franke from repeating the claim, which themselves repeated speculation by the Spanish Civil Guard as to the identity of athletes identified only by codenames or numbers in the documentation of Dr. Fuentes.

Ullrich AND Basso negotiating with Discovery?

Eurosport | Ullrich admits Discovery interest

Eurosport reports that Jan Ullrich is in discussions with Discovery Channel, as both seek to return to the top step at the Tour de France.

In an interview with Swiss newspaper Blick (in German), Ullrich said he and Discovery have had contact but have no agreement.

"I have always said I will finish with a Tour victory," said Ullrich, winner in only his second Tour de France, in 1997. "Unfortunately, this year I was prevented from doing so. That's why I will try to add another year."

In a throw-in paragraph at the end, they note: “Basso is another rider recently tipped with a move to Discovery Channel, along with 2006 winner Floyd Landis and Gerolsteiner's Levi Leipheimer.”

T-Mobile fax: Jan, you're fired

Eurosport | Ullrich sacked by fax

On his personal website, Jan Ullrich says T-Mobile has fired him (in German | weak Google translation) -- by fax.

T-Mobile manager Olaf Ludwig has confirmed the report. Ullrich says his representatives and the team are to meet next week to discuss an agreement, but if they can't negotiate something, Ullrich says he will sue.

"I am very disappointed about the fact the decision was not communicated to me personally but by T-Mobile's lawyers in a fax ... 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."