BERLIN (AFP) - German Jorg Jaksche, one of dozens of cyclists implicated in the Operation Puerto doping scandal which erupted last year, admitted Saturday that he used banned substances for years.
In an interview published in Saturday's edition of the German weekly Der Spiegel, Jaksche admitted his involvement in the blood-doping network run by Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, where he was known by the pseudonym "Bella".
"I'm Bella. It's my blood which was found in three bags (at Dr Fuentes offices). I was a client of Dr Fuentes from 2005 to 2006 in Madrid," admitted the 30-year-old former T-Mobile rider.
"Fuentes was a master of concealment. None of his clients knew each other. Even within our team, you weren't really sure if the other riders went to him."
Jaksche, the 2004 Paris-Nice winner who joined the Russian second division outfit Tinkoff in April, also implicated his former teams Polti, ONCE, CSC and Telekom in organised doping.
Operation Puerto erupted in May 2006, when Spanish police raided the premises of Spanish sports doctor Fuentes and found bags of blood, banned substances and names of 200 athletes, including 60 cyclists.
Jaksche was linked to one of the codenames found on the bags of blood, but he had previously denied that the moniker "Bella Jorg" related to him.
Germany's 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich was implicated, as was Italian Ivan Basso.
Jaksche was one of the 13 riders, including Basso and Ullrich, who were prevented from riding last year's Tour de France because of their implication in the affair.
Jaksche claimed that he started taking EPO (erythropoietin) while under contract with the Italian Polti team from June 1997 and notably during the 1998 Tour de France. He said that he had also used growth hormone.
During the 1998 Tour Jaksche claimed that EPO was hidden in the false bottom of a vacuum cleaner which they carried around in the team car.
"After all Polti, our sponsors, manufactured home appliances. Some 10,000 phials of EPO were hidden in the appliance," said Jaksche, who claimed that team boss Gianluigi Stanga, currently with the Milram team of Erik Zabel, was aware of the practice.
He claimed that the Telekom team, with whom he rode from 1998 to 2000, had "a deeply embedded system" of doping.
"The problem was not how to prevent doping but how to avoid it being done badly," said Jaksche.
The German rider said doping was also practiced in the Spanish ONCE team which he rode for between 2001 and 2003.
"I was completely in the hands of the doctors and I can't even say what they did to us exactly. I'd simply hold out my arm and allow myself to be injected.
"It's possible that they gave me everything, I don't know and I don't want to know."
At the end of 2003, Jaksche headed for Danish outfit CSC, which is managed by former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis. Jaksche claimed that Riis was "obviously aware" of the doping practices in the team.
Jaksche's lawyer Michael Lehner said on Friday the German was ready to give evidence before the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA), the International Cycling Union (UCI) and legal authorities.
The Tour de France begins in London on July 7, and organisers and the sport's world ruling body have taken serious steps in a bid to finally bring an end to cheating in the sport.
