German Doping Expert Shocked by Ullrich's Drugs Budget
August 4, 2006
Ullrich was barred from last month's Tour de France after being named by Spanish investigators as one of a list of athletes suspected of collaborating with a doctor heading a blood-doping network.
The claim that the 32-year-old was a major drugs user was made by professor Werner Franke, a German anti-doping specialist.
"I inspected the file on Jan Ullrich compiled (by Spanish police) in Madrid and all I can say is that it's been some time since I've seen so much bad stuff," Franke said in an interview for the local German television station, Rheinmaintv.
"Truly diabolical"
"Some of the people in his entourage are truly diabolical to advise him to take these products and to put him in contact with the Spanish doctor," Franke said.
Franke is an established authority on the questions of doping in German sport. He was responsible for exposing the culture of systematic doping of athletes in the former east Germany after the Berlin Wall came down.
"Ullrich must have spent 35,000 euros in a single year to cover his doping requirements," Franke said.
Ullrich, the 1997 Tour winner, protests his innocence and denies taking drugs.