The Tour de France starts into its 110th edition. After turbulent years with huge doping scandals, representatives of the scene like to give the impression that the normality of a clean sport has arrived. But cycling is a long way from that, as an inventory by the ARD doping editorial team shows.
By Hajo Seppelt, Sebastian Munster, Peter Wozny and Sebastian Krause
Phil Bauhaus looked annoyed at the camera at the start of the Tour of Slovenia a few days ago. The topic of doping is “basically of course always stupid,” said the German driver of the Bahrain Victorious team: “It always comes up at the Tour de France, otherwise of course never.” He sarcastically described this circumstance as a “funny coincidence”.
Doping remains a hot topic in the scene. Cycling is a long way from a return to normality, which officials, sponsors and riders like to talk about after the huge doping scandals around the turn of the millennium.
WADA statistics: 1522 doping cases in eight years
Investigations are still ongoing in several countries, and top teams are still employing highly charged actors. Cooperation between anti-doping institutions and state authorities still seems to be inadequate. And cycling still delivers hundreds of doping cases. Striking: Everything only seems to be clean in the most important race of all. Since 2015, since Luca Paolini had to leave after testing positive for cocaine, there has not been a single official doping case at the Tour de France.
The World Anti-Doping Agency WADA meticulously notes official doping cases in its lists – only those from 2013 to 2020 are currently publicly available. In cycling there are a total of 1,522 during this period. In fact, cycling even leaves the “leader” behind: In athletics, 1,757 so-called ADRVs (anti-doping rule violations) are recorded, but there are also more frequent tests. The rate of those caught is higher in cycling (0.85% in 178,167 tests) than in athletics (0.77% in 229,307 tests). The most vulnerable discipline is road cycling (97,502 tests, 652 ADRV, 0.67%). In view of such numbers, how realistic is it that nobody would dope at the world’s largest road cycling race, the Tour de France?
It is obviously not due to a high level of deterrence by an effective anti-doping system that no one has been caught in the “big loop” for eight years. Example Slovenia: During a visit to the national anti-doping agency of the small country, which has been at the center of many suspicions since the rise of the high-flyers Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglič, the ARD doping editorial team revealed remarkable deficits.
Slovenia’s NADA boss: Doping “comes from abroad”
As head of the Slovenian NADA, Janko Dvoršak, one would think, already has a minimum of distrust in the world’s dominating professional cyclists from the two-million-inhabitant state and the structures behind it. Instead, he issues a strange clean bill of health: “Doping requires technology and money. These conditions do not exist in Slovenia. I think that comes mainly from abroad.”
Dvoršak says he only knows the details of “Operation Aderlass” around the Erfurt blood doping doctor Mark S. from the media. In the biggest doping scandal outside of Russia in recent years, many leads lead to Slovenia. Kristjan Koren and Borut Bozic, both Slovenians from the Bahrain team, were banned because of contacts with the Erfurt blood panchers.
Milan Erzen, the current manager of the team, is also Slovenian. He was heavily charged by Marc S. after his arrest in a customs hearing. According to S., Erzen showed keen interest in a business relationship and in purchasing a blood processing machine, an investigator explained during the Munich trials for “Operation Bloodletting”. Erzen denies both.
“Investigations are none of our business”
“The investigation is a matter for the police and is none of our business. Law enforcement and anti-doping work must be clearly separated,” says Slovenia’s top doping fighter Dvoršak – contradicting WADA’s recent investigative efforts. Amina Lanaya, Director General of the World Association UCI, recently emphasized the need for better networking with government agencies: “For me, tests are no longer the most important tool in the fight against doping. It is educational work and research. We have to work hand in hand with the police authorities.”
The domestic NADA does not even include the Slovenian top drivers around Pogačar and Roglič in their test pool. Dvoršak emphasizes that the World Association and the International Test Agency ITA commissioned by the UCI are responsible for the controls. WADA warns in its test guidelines: “Even if athletes do not train at national level in the country of the national anti-doping organization, NADA is still responsible for ensuring that these athletes are subjected to tests abroad.”
Investigation status unclear
In 2021 and 2022, Team Bahrain was raided before and during the Tour de France respectively. A number of supervisors and some of the drivers of the racing team come from Slovenia. It is unclear what the status of investigations by state authorities against the team is. Eurojust, the European Union agency for judicial cooperation in criminal matters familiar with the case, referred the case to the Marseille public prosecutor. In turn, when asked by ARD, they only wanted to confirm that the cause was still being investigated.
The information situation in Spain is similarly poor. The “Operacion Ilex” has been running there since the beginning of 2021 against a possible new doping network. Here, too, it says: The investigations are ongoing. The Kazakh Pro Tour team Astana already suspended its Colombian top star Miguel Angel Lopez last year. Shortly before, it had become known that Lopez was one of the suspects in investigations by the Spanish Guardia Civil. The driver denies any wrongdoing.
Vicente Belda Garcia, the former team Astana physiotherapist, is also among those accused. When asked by ARD, he declined to comment on possible doping involvement. Belda is accused by the possible mastermind of the network, Marcos Maynar. According to investigators’ findings, the biophysicist is said to have acquired substances banned in Russia and other countries and sold them to cyclists. He could not be reached for comment.
Lugworm hemoglobin
Also in the sights of the investigators is the long-time Astana team manager Vicente Belda, father of the physiotherapist Vincente junior. Vicente senior was once in close contact with Eufemiano Fuentes, the mastermind behind the biggest doping case in cycling history: the Operacion Puerto, which ultimately also brought down Jan Ullrich. Maybe they still exist in cycling, the old rope teams.
The rumors about “means of choice” within the peloton are fueled again and again. Last in discussion: a substance from the hemoglobin of the lugworm, whose blood can store 40 times more oxygen than human blood.
No Tour de France without suspected doping – that also applies in 2023.
