Tour de France - Ullrich surprised by Contador ban
Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich described a doping ban for Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador as "unexpected and tough" on Wednesday on the eve of his own Court of Arbitration decision.
"This is a tough verdict and I did not expect that," Ullrich said. "I wish Alberto a lot of strength so that he can return in August in full force. A cyclist like him is superb for the sport."
Contador was banned for two years on Monday by CAS for failing a drugs test during his victorious 2010 Tour de France campaign.
The Spaniard, also stripped of the Tour title in Monday's CAS ruling, is considering appealing and insisted he is innocent of deliberate doping.
He said he planned to return to competition when the retroactive ban ends in August.
Ullrich is awaiting a CAS decision on Thursday over the German's alleged involvement in a blood-doping scandal.
The Operation Puerto scandal broke in 2006, when Spanish police launched raids that uncovered more than 200 code-named blood bags, some of which were linked to cyclists.
Ullrich, who retired in 2007, became the first German to win the Tour de France in 1997. He has denied being involved in the scandal.
"Tomorrow (Thursday) is a happy day for me. I am happy to have the decision after waiting for almost six years," Ullrich said.
"I had to suffer a lot and even suffered burn-out. I am happy to have the verdict. Then I can again comment on it and then it is over and done with."
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Ullrich must be the only man on the planet to be surprised and call Contador a cyclist.
Everyone is doped except Lance! REALLY?
cheating be it professional, mechanical or drug related i suspect goes on in all sports! I'd love to be proved wrong! I can remember seeing the Russian (CCCP as it was then) bike team in late 1970' early 80's Milk race in Brighton and their thighs looked like massively drug overdeveloped compared to the non drug twigs i was sporting! No way you could develop legs like that without drug assistance! even i knew it was "cheating" then in my youth and prompted me to visit Doctor to prescribe some steroids, which thankfully he didnt! cest la vie
free2disagree- Agree with you on a lot of points and maybe I was being too niave when say let the sport be clean from now on. As in all aspects of life some people will cheat to get even the slightest of advantages. I guess what I'm trying to say is, WADA the UCI and the IOC etc. should be saying, " go on then, try and cheat if you want to, but we will still be testing you and if you are caught you will be banned from competition for life and you will have to pay back all personnal winnings and sponsership monies".
Drug use in sport has always been cutting edge, users will always be looking for new drugs, masking agents and others methods to avoid detection. A lot of the time big bucks is thrown in to this, with even some Governments backing the research, develpment and administration of said products, ( old Eastern Bloc countries and the USA during the cold war, China's swimming team a few years back, oh and all of a sudden the best sprinters in the world ALL come from Jamaica, yeah right!). The testers need to concentrate the resources on research and developement themselves and stop their witch hunts.
Let the Punishments outweigh the gains and then maybe we will see a difference huh?
adam unless they test every rider 365 days a year for their career (no chance) cycling will never be free from doping.What i said was about making a level playing field,drug testing is getting better but then so are the drugs.The like's of Armstrong,Hinault, Merxc, Indurain and crew would always have been winners not because of what they were taking ,but regardless of what they or the cowboys of the day where taking. When i say let them dope its not about the rights , wrongs or having no moral ground to stand on, its about taking away the cheats advantage.As for worrying abut cycling image now is like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted , unfortunately no amount of good press will change this, first impressions do last.
Good luck to Jan today!
It's what i do ......................
Cycling is one of the cleanest sports already, it's just seems dirtier because we are the strictest when it comes to testing and enforcement. How many of the top footballers and and other athletes, have been named for thier involvement in the Puerto affair? And believe me there were a lot of big names on it.
Too much money involved too bring them down I'm afraid.
You can never sanction the use of drugs, otherwise you'll get more donkeys trying to give themselves blood transfusions so they can take what the big boys take.
Like I said regarding retrospective testing, it's got to be everyone or no one. I just think that the money spent chasing ghosts could be better spent on the here and now, catching those who are deliberately cheating and then banning them from competition for life.
RiChArD you upset the thumbs down idiots again, must be real fun on their weekend rides.Adam it's hard to draw a line that will let some off and put some in jail so to speak, either go after them all or let everyone off.I used to be vehemently anti doping but over time have realised doping is part of cycling past,present and future, this doesn't mean or prove that cycling dirtier or cleaner than other sports it just means people cheat.Now that we know there will never be a totally clean peloton let them dope make it a level playing field.Maybe the UCI could use some of the money they save to educate the motorists of the world( especially where i live) it ain't funny to push cyclist off the road.
The ban is an absolute disgrace. The darkest day in cycling in my opinion. I will still watch the TOUR though for French cooking programs and rare glimpse of old French cars.
Too right!
Enough!
There has got to be a line drawn somewhere. There has got to be a date set that they can say, what is done in the past is done but from this date forward anyone caught cheating in anyway will be banned from competitive cycling for life.
I loved the Ullrich & Armstrong era, the racing was exciting and the Tour was never boring. The amount of doping that was allegedly going on was so widespread that, it was probably as much a level playing field as it is now, just at the time I probably didn't realise it.
To me though, as long as cycling is clean from now on, thats all that matters. As I see it, and this is just my humble opinion. if they want to go after cyclist such as Armstrong, Ullrich and other cyclists that have long hung up thier cleats, you have to go after them all. Hinault, Merxc, Indurain etc. Because I for one do not believe that they are above suspicion.
I had been hoping Jan would come out with a confession but if these comments are anything to go by that seems unlikely.
As I said, wish I could claim it.
Not surprising about the lack of humour some people have on the subject - they're too entrenched in their love of their hero to be able to take a break from it.
I just hope that Jan gets the right verdict, Hounding him does no one any good & will do more damage to the publics view of our sport.
Classic Richard! (Everyone- please get a sense of humor about this. If you don't believe organized doping governed the sport in all of Armstrong's years and can't have a little fun with it, you really must believe in the Easter bunny and Santa Claus).
This one wasn't mine ..... but I wish it was:
" when "mr clean" gave jan "the look" what he was saying was,my stuff's better than yours. "
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