Jan Ullrich is in a heap o’ trouble these days. With yesterday’s reports at CyclingNews.com and VeloNews.com that Ullrich’s DNA matches the DNA in 9 of the bags of blood found during the Operation Puerto investigation, things aren’t looking good for the retired German cyclist. Given the news, it would be easy to conclude that Ullrich was involved in blood doping, and that he was helped by Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, the Spanish doctor at the heart of the Operation Puerto investigation.
Of course, just because Dr. Fuentes had 9 bags of Jan Ullrich’s blood doesn’t actually prove that he was doping. It merely suggests it. Just like the footprints at the scene of a certain crime didn’t prove O. J. Simpson killed his wife and her friend, it merely suggested the possibility that he was there. Especially given how rare that brand of shoe (Bruno Magli) was and that the shoe size was the same as Simpson. Not conclusive proof, mind you, but it gives a strong hint, doesn’t it?
According to today’s edition of CyclingNews:
[O]ne of Ullrich’s attorneys, Peter-Michael Diestel maintained that even the DNA match did not prove that Ullrich made use of blood doping. “Even if all of this is true, it doesn’t mean he doped,” Diestel told the N24 TV channel. “I also have blood of mine in various places. I have a doctor in Rostock, another one in Berlin, another one wherever… This doesn’t mean that the blood was manipulated, that it was used for doping purposes.
The paper notes that Jörg Jaksche, another rider caught in the Puerto mess, expressed a similar theme back in December 2006:
“Even if a bag containing the blood of one of the accused had been found in Fuentes’ apartment, that doesn’t mean that the rider had the intention of enhancing his performance,” he said in December 2006. “It only means that a certain amount of blood was given. … If someone goes into a shop and buys a knife, you can’t convict him of planned homicide, either.”
Well, yes, that’s true. Ullrich might have been intent on storing his blood in case of accidents, so that he could be transfused with his own blood, if necessary. After all, Tyler Hamilton served his time for allegedly having someone else’s blood in him. If an accident occurred at a race, and you hadn’t stored your own blood but needed a transfusion to save your life, what would you do? My guess, take a transfusion of someone else’s blood, as long as it’s the right blood type.
But, would you then need to get a therapeutic use exemption? How long after a transfusion can the current testing methods detect a trace of someone else’s blood? Once you were capable of returning to competition, could you test positive for homologous blood doping? (The same offense that caused Hamilton to sit out of competition for two years.)
And why on earth, if that was Ullrich’s intention, would he store his blood with a doctor of somewhat shady character, like Dr. Fuentes? Why not find some other way to do so, in order to steer clear of any doping suspicions? This was not the brightest move on Ullrich’s part.
Ullrich continues to deny any connection to Dr. Fuentes, according to a report on VeloNews.com. The DNA match between Ullrich and the bags of blood found during the Puerto investigation seem to refute such claims. And, as VeloNews reports, the German media are coming down hard on Ullrich in light of yesterday’s news:
“On thing is now clear,” wrote the Berliner Zeitung. “Ullrich lied.” [Friedrich] Apostel [the prosecutor investigating allegations against Ullrich] said that charges could be filed “soon” now that the blood has been directly tied to the former T-Mobile star. Indeed, both Ullrich and his former coach Rudy Pevenage could be charged under the provisions of a German law regulating medical procedures, although Apostel cautioned he was not certain as to precisely when charges may be filed, since he is reviewing additional evidence in the case.
With the absence of a specific German anti-doping statute, the court in Bonn is also examining a fraud complaint brought against Ullrich by Britta Bannenberg, a former athlete and now a criminologist at the University of Bielefeld.
A spokesman for T-Mobile, Ullrich’s former team, expressed disappointment, but not surprise:
“I’m disappointed that Jan has been forced to end his career on such a bad note,” T-Mobile spokesman Christian Frommert said in an interview with Germany’s N24 news network. “I’m disappointed, but unfortunately, I’m not surprised.”
“When we decided to pull Jan Ullrich from the team for the 2006 Tour de France, he insisted that the information we had was wrong and that had never been in contact with Fuentes,” Frommert noted. “Today’s information from Bonn refutes that claim.”
Operation Puerto has certainly been a bungled investigation from the start. It hasn’t helped matters any that authorities were trying to prosecute people for “crimes” which (at least as far as the laws in Germany and Spain are concerned) weren’t against the law at the time. So, yes, there is a possibility that Ullrich’s claims that the tests have been manipulated might be correct. We’ve already seen how certain labs are sometimes guilty of sloppy work.
But DNA testing is pretty routine these days, and can be done at a number of labs besides the official anti-doping labs. So if it’s true that Ullrich’s samples were manipulated, then he and his lawyers are going to have to explain exactly how that occurred.
Jan Ullrich may also want to consider speaking up and explaining exactly what his relationship with Dr. Fuentes was, and how his blood appears to have been in Dr. Fuentes’ possession. It’s a damning bit of evidence, and he needs to respond accordingly. If the allegations are true, then his best bet would be to admit it, explain why he was doing it, and hope people would understand.
If the allegations aren’t true, then he needs to be much more vigorous in his defense. The German press (and others) are already crucifying him. He doesn’t need to pour gasoline on the bonfire by offering up weak excuses. If he’s truly innocent, then what he needs to do is back up his arguments with some good, solid reasoning and some good, solid evidence.
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“Even if a bag containing the blood of one of the accused had been found in Fuentes’ apartment, that doesn’t mean that the rider had the intention of enhancing his performance.”
Generally, and I could be wrong here, most reputable doctors do not keep blood in their apartments. Again, I could be wrong . . .
I honestly feel for Jan. Things are going to get very, very ugly for him and, most likely, he’ll be holding the shovel for his own grave.
I would like Jan or someone else to offer a good explanation of why, if the blood was saved for a transfusion (assuming a crash), that it was not stored at a local hospital or other recognized medical facility. I agree with Gary that reputable doctors do not keep blood in their apartments.
I’ve got to believe that storing blood in one’s apartment (or house) is not exactly in keeping with proper protocols, or particularly safe. Much better off, if one has to store blood, to use the local hospital or blood bank. Jan’s story is getting increasingly ugly, and it’s a sad state of affairs to see such a gifted rider go down in flames like this.
Ok, here is the conpsiracy buff in me coming out: Who reported this connection, and what do they have to gain from implicating Ullrich? What do they have to lose if no one is implicated? Who is verifying this DNA connection? I no longer trust the “powers that be” who preside over this information, and I certainly don’t assume them to be above manipulating evidence. The truth will out, as the great bard said. Question is, will it really be the truth?
I agree with Trislax…These guys are looking for a fall guy. Did the results match conclusively or just a 25% chance of a match… Everyone has a CSI Miami view of testing and assumes they are all perfect. Was this reported by WADA trying to bolster their everyone cheats campaign. This seems like convenient timing with the Landis trial right around the corner. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t…but its rake people through the coals time.
I would have loved to see Jan and Floyd race…
Trislax and JD,
The reports of the DNA tests came from the German prosecutor’s office. How good are the DNA tests? Well, let’s put it this way, the science behind the DNA testing is a lot more established than the testosterone testing that Floyd’s case is based upon. With some of the DNA tests, the odds of a false positive are in the neighborhood of one in a billion. It’s easy to believe that WADA or some other agency might be behind the announcement, but the only person who appears to be responsible in Ullrich’s case is the German prosecutor. Granted, he has an agenda — to prove Ullrich guilty. And it’s possible that the results are incorrect. If that’s the case, Ullrich needs to step up his defense quite a bit, however.
I will also with hold judgment on Jan, I don’t trust the authorities in these cases, they all have agendas. Just because the prosecutor says it is so does not make it so. Remember the Duke la’cross team striper snafu? I’m not a fan of Jan, but I’m not going to rush to judgment. However the fact the story wasn’t broke by le’equepe as well as the fact that it’s not the usual suspects (McQuaid, Pound) breaking the story lends to its credibility. But right now it is a he said she said, I’ll wait for more prof before I judge and convict.
I think we should have learned our lesson with the Landis case. We give Landis and the Thorpedo the benefit of the doubt but not Jan? Why? Because a prosecutor SAYS he has DNA Proof? Does he have DNA proof? Where is the proof that he has the evidence he says he has?
Atown,
Jan deserves the benefit of the doubt, to be sure. He also needs to speak out and defend himself better. I’m not going to say he’s guilty just yet, but he’s in a bad situation, and he needs to find a way out. Perhaps the prosecutor is bluffing, and perhaps he’s puffing out his chest to see what kind of good press he can get. If that’s the case, he’s done pretty well. I’d like to see the evidence laid out for all to see, just as Floyd did. If Ullrich and his defense team do that, it might go a long way to bolstering their claims of innocence. The bad news for Jan is that if the reports are correct, and a DNA match really was made, it’s going to be harder for him to refute the evidence than it will be for Floyd Landis or Ian Thorpe. Not impossible, but definitely much harder.
Maybe it is because I am a scientist that grew up in the age of DNA that I trust it far more than I do these other doping assays (if you want a foaming rant ask me about Tyler’s test!). The DNA tests provide polymorphic markers that can quickly make the case that you are the only one in the universe that could match that DNA sample (unless of course you have an evil twin from which you were separated from birth, or, better yet, there is an island somewhere in the desert that is growing your twin: Scarlet, you make my heart thump).
So unless they mixed the 8 bags of blood with the skin they took from the insdie of his cheek, or unless a completely stoopid lab did the test (thank God it was the germans or maybe swiss instead of the french) he is cooked, done for, out on the back forty, dead and buried. Bye Jan….
Who wants to bet? A soon to appear L’Equipe story: Ullrich doped and didn’t beat Armstrong. Therefore, it is clear Armstrong doped in order to ensure his victory over Ullrich because Lance knew that Jan doped; and Jan knew that Lance knew…..which is why Jan was forced to dope as he assumed that Armstrong’s knowledge would — and assumedly did — lead to Lance doping. In a related story, evidence will be constructed to conclusively show that both Armstrong and Ullrich were abducted by aliens who performed both doping procedures in a way that was beyond the capability of current technology to detect, so there is no culpability to anyone at LNDD nor to anyone at WADA.
Somehow, even with this awful news, I feel sad for Jan. And, frankly, I feel sad for myself. Watching my TDF DVD collection (the 6 DVD sets, mind you!) will now be tainted by the by the Memorex-like thought “Was the blood Ullrich, or was the blood Fuentes-Ullrich-enhanced?”
Lastly, I fail to see sport-worthiness or law-worthiness of prosecuting Ullrich. What, in the wide-wide-world-of-sports is there to gain by another prosecution of a retired hero athlete? Somebody have pity on cycling, swimming and on my DVD collection! Maybe Jan and Ian (Thorpe-do) can get a volume discount on legal services. Or, for that matter, maybe both of them can have a laugh and watch quasi-legal-protectors-of-the-sporting-realm froth at the mouth over yesterday’s news.
JBSM…I’m asking about Tyler’s test 😉