No one ever said you had to be an Einstein to be a bike racer, and no one proves that point better than Patrik Sinkewitz. Sinkewitz tested positive for synthetic testosterone after he was required to give a sample to the anti-doping authorities at a T-Mobile training camp in early June, while the team prepared for the Tour de France.
Sinkewitz, feeling the need to speed his recovery, decided to apply a bit of Testogel to his arm the night before he would have to submit to anti-doping tests. Worse, it sounds like he actually knew the tests were going to occur. It takes some kind of genius to think that somehow he could actually get away with a boneheaded move like that.
As Sam Abt so aptly put it in the International Herald Tribune:
Maybe, Pat, testosterone doesn’t do anything for a rider. That’s one of the arguments in the Landis defense. If true, the joke’s on you. Maybe you should have taken Bromo-Seltzer instead for all the spark it would have provided.
Abt’s been paying attention (no surprise, he’s been one of the most well-versed writers on the subject of cycling for decades). There’s no published evidence that proves testosterone speeds recovery when used the way cyclists currently use it. Yes, the testosterone might have other effects, like increasing aggression or a feeling of well being, but as far as muscle recovery goes, there’s no proof it works. Still, the placebo effect can be a strong one. So if a cyclist believes it works, he or she just might see improvements in performance.
And whether or not anti-doping labs can actually perform the tests correctly, and whether or not the results prove what they say they do, what kind of self-destructive fool would use the stuff right before being tested?
Give Sinkewitz some credit for owning up to his actions. But he’s clearly shown that one doesn’t need to be a genius to be a mid-pack rider. I hope for his sake that he learns a lesson here, and if he’s able to come back to racing once his suspension is over that he will race clean from then on out.
A few more thoughts: How did Sinkewitz get the Testogel? Isn’t that a prescription medication? If that’s true in Germany, then someone helped him — either a physician or an illicit supplier. Will Sinkewitz sing like a stool pigeon and tell the authorities all he knows? And if he does, will his suspension be reduced? Might the UCI and T-Mobile decide, in that case, to let him keep that year’s salary he would otherwise have to forfeit?
It’s going to be interesting to see how this saga plays out.
Why Is Werner Franke Speaking Out About Alberto Contador?
That’s a question on my mind. And what can the German Federal Criminal Police do with the information that he’s turned over to them that allegedly links Contador to Operacion Puerto? Since Contador isn’t a German citizen, I’m not sure that the German government can do much, other than ban him from racing in Germany if they believe the evidence shows that Contador was part of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes’ doping clan.
Franke, for those of you who don’t know, was one of the influential people in bringing the puppetmasters of the East German doping machine to justice. He’s a well-known authority on doping. But he has run afoul of various people. Last year, Franke was slapped with a gag order due to comments he made about Jan Ullrich and his connection to Fuentes, including making public just how much Ullrich is alleged to have paid the Spanish doctor.
So here’s what I’m wondering: Could German authorities prosecute Contador, assuming they believe the evidence in those documents? And if so, what would be the real effect on Contador, other than to keep him from entering Germany?
Why not go directly to the UCI or the World Anti-Doping Agency? If the evidence is that solid, wouldn’t they be better situated to do something?
Contador was cleared by Spanish authorities late last year, and he maintains that he was merely on the wrong team at the wrong time, and that he had nothing to do with Dr. Fuentes. Spanish cycling authorities haven’t taken any action against him, either. Could it be that Contador’s story is the truth, and that despite the circumstantial evidence the Franke handed over, when the entire context of the situation is considered, the Spanish cyclist is more likely to be telling the truth than not?
One thing that this whole episode is proving is that the ghost of Operacion Puerto lives. And it appears it will be with us for some time to come. But at a certain point, the cycling world would be better served by having the authorities focus on what’s going on in the here and now rather than what transpired in the past. There are only so many resources to fight doping. They’re best used where it makes the biggest difference. And that would be in efforts to find and curb doping in the present and future.
Even though the recent Tour de France might arguably be considered a victory for the anti-doping forces, by keeping energies focused on the past, the dopers in the present might find yet another way to evade detection: Tie up resources to hunt down leads on cases that are growing ever more distant.
Operacion Puerto had the potential to blow the lid off a huge part of the doping underground. But mistakes in how the case has been handled effectively scuttled that effort. It’s time to let Operacion Puerto go and focus on the challenges ahead.
As for Alberto Contador, only he knows the truth as to what happened. If Spanish authorities couldn’t find a reason to prosecute him in connection with the case, one of the explanations is that he just might not have done anything wrong. And as one of the owners of his cycling team once put it, “How do you prove a negative?”
I am still of the opinion that any good lawyer would be able to keep Patrick’s money with Patrick (minus the lawyer’s “fair” take, of course). The agreement to forfeit was fully 11 days after the sample with the positive was taken. That said, I hope Mr. S will grace us with the name of who was procuring said Testogel for him.
LuckyLab,
Agreed, a good lawyer should be able to take the fact that the test occurred before he signed onto “The Pledge” and find a way to keep Sinkewitz from forking over a year’s salary. Given the mess he’s gotten himself into, let’s hope Sinkewitz at least has enough smarts to find a good attorney.
– Rant
This brings up another question re Contador. Assume for a moment that Franke’s allegations are true and AC was involved in the OP mess. That was all pre-2006. Now AC was certainly tested during the last several days of this year’s Tour, after he was given the Yellow Jersey, maybe more. Anyway, whatever the truth of Franke’s allegations, there is no proof he doped during the Tour. However, one could argue that, if the OP business had been able to convict him last year, he would be in the midst of a 2 year suspension and would not have been able to ride. However, one could also argue that, since he had been cleared by the Spanish authorities, and apparently no one else was able or willing to pursue that matter against him, there was no reason to ban him from the Tour.
Regarding Franke’s statement that he put these documents in his brief case when the police weren’t looking: one wonders why he was present during what apparently was a search by the police. Someone commented yesterday that the police might have slipped him these documents on the sly for some reason. I rather doubt that. The general procedure during a search is to take anything that MIGHT be evidence and sort it out later. You often really don’t know if something will be of value until you look at everything and see how things relate one to another, as well as to other evidence you have get. Of course, I don’t know about Spanish law, but what he claims to have done would be a crime here in the US. Certainly, any defense lawyer worth his salt would object to the introduction of such evidence and probably would have a good case to get it thrown out.
William,
If I remember correctly, such evidence would be considered fruit of the poisoned tree.” As such, it’s pretty unlikely any court here would allow such evidence to be introduced. Spain or Germany might be a different matter, as I don’t know whether such a comcept exists in either the Spanish or German legal systems. I would hope so, but every country has it’s own rules.
– Rant
The thought occurred to me as I was out on my morning ride: perhaps Sink swallowed the USADA’s papp from Papp that testosterone is both helpful in recovery and easy to get away with.
Good point on the fruit. If Franke was present during the actual police search, his actions could be construed as being part of the police search – perhaps they even requested him to provide his expertise. At least that’s how things can work here in the good ol’ US of A. However, constitutional protections against search and seizure do not necessarily apply to private citizens acting on their own accord. If you suspect that I an doping and sneak into my house and discover evidence, it may be admissible. But there then could be questions regarding the credibility of such evidence. Remember the Rather flap during the 2004 election? It is pretty easy to produce false documents. I also wonder why, if Franke is so die-hard anti-doping, why he waited all this time to produce these documents. It would have been a lot better if he produced them during the initial investigations so that they could be properly evaluated. Kind of looks like some people are timing things to do maximum damage to cycling and/or the TdF. Politics! Ugh!
Franke started out way back when the US was contesting the Russian, East German and other East block countries who were, according to some in the US, doping to the gills in the Olympics, some of it really got absurd with the US claiming that the Russians and Romanians were trying to pass of men in the women’s sports, etc. got to say – there are even now – some really “manly” looking women in this neck of the woods – but I have to admit – most of them are not sport athletes…
Sinkewitz home was searched by the police today, an anonymus charge was made in June this year accusing him of continuus doping. According to the radio news, the police decided to go after it, when Sinkewitz confessed.
I´m not sure, if it was just an honest thing for to confess or just the easiest way to get probably the smallest sentence. I suppose, it was the latter.
Franke is an incredible self-righteous, know all person. In his show ups on TV shows he seems like an obsessed old man. Don´t mislead me, he did a lot in the fight for doping victims, but I think at some point he passed the line.
His statements and comments are often extremly one sided and the funniest, if the lawyer Michael Lehner is going to defend an athlete, he changes his mind and defends these, but only these, athletes too. E.G. Danilo Hondo, Kessler. Franke said, a T/E ratio of 86 looks like a lab error? Really, in the Landis case I read a lot steroid related Doping-literature and it´s written for anybody, that you can see T/E ratios >200, depending on amount of T and/or time of the sample. As a (self-called) doping expert, he should know…
Franke took his “personal OP file” from talkshow to talkshow to claim, how bad everybody in cycling is, but he didn´t brought something substancial. This kind of presentation doesn´t help the discussion or possible solutions, it only help´s him, having some time in the public and reading his name in the papers.
Dumas,
Thanks for the insights. I hesitated to write about Franke’s claims when I first heard them because I wondered it perhaps he’d stepped over a line at some point, and had gone from being someone who fights the good fight to being someone who’s rabidly obsessed with the fight, itself. It certainly is beginning to sound that way. Always good to get perspective from across the pond. Most appreciated.
– Rant
I think Patrik will give a full confession. And it’s T-Mobile that wants his salary, not the ASO. But, he needs to give the name of the Doctor that wrote that Rx for him. And to give the guy some credit; he did admit it was a stupid thing to do, and he did out of habit. That tells me he’s been using regularly for a long time, and T-Mobile needs to add urine tests to their testing regimen. Would it cost that much more??
Mar Biver, swiss manager of Astana was interviewed by swiss press.
http://www.journaldujura.ch/article.cfm?ressort=Sports&kap=bta&job=7921310&startrow=6
It’s in french, so the summary is that he is not supporting Vino, and without a big change in team he will resign, he just continue his job for the yound riders.
Jean,
Interesting. Thanks for the link and the summary.
– Rant
Marc Biver didn´t grew up in cycling. It´s the same as John Lelangue was in Phonak and Bob Stapleton is in t-mobile. They come/came with a big portion of enthusiasm and are deeply underestimating the problems in the sport. They live their dream and unfortunately it turns out to be kind of a nightmare.
Other then making a public statement – the German authorities have no legal footing to “prosecute” Contador – the only way legally they could involve themselves is if Contador was riding for a German team. Which brings up one of the major problems of the Cycling world. Each country has it’s own laws and rules – and they adhere to their nationalistic biases.
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ie: Italy doesn’t want France to tell them how to run their cycling federations and in-country governing bodies. Nor does Germany, the USA, Denmark, Spain, etc. As long as the UCI or WADA is “based” or associated with a particular country – everybody can accuse them of “bias” and because suspicion is rife, with everyone having their own personal opinions and ideas and bias’ “about what is really going on”.
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Take all of us who are involved in writing our opinions on your blog Rant – While it may feel like we are “expressing” real issues – are we? Or are we merely taking sides? As I see it – the solution is simple: If testing is to be used to judge an athlete, then the Test Procedures – must be the SAME for all concerned.
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If we can claim that a test run in one country “faulty” – then we must have a way to prove or disprove this. Scientifically. It seems to me – that if science is to be used, it should be blind to such manipulations as “nationalistic pride” or “opinions” or someone or organization making a power play and using it to get their own way.
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Tel me if I’m wrong – but the Table of Elements are the same in all the countries, no? – If a machine is designed with scientific parameters – then these should be parameters that are the same the world over. l am not so gullible as to ignore the human factor in this – I do find it interesting though that WADA and the UCI have both created a “closed system” whereby their findings have to be taken as “true”. Without question…then perhaps we shouldn’t wonder why there is so much “mistrust” of these organizations.
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The “ghosts” of every operation will continue to haunt us as long as we cannot agree world wide on what rules we are playing by. More importantly, as long as such “closed system” styles are allowed – we cannot hope for any other state to exist.
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Unfair is unfair – whatever land we may be living in.