February 9/12 7:33 am - Ullrich Receives Two Year Ban

Posted by Editoress on 02/9/12
 

Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich has received a retroactive ban of two years for the final two seasons of his career in 2005 to 2007, announced the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) today.  Ullrich loses his third place in the 2005 Tour de France.

The CAS determined that "given the volume, consistency and probative value of the evidence presented by the UCI, and the failure of Jan Ullrich to raise any doubt about the veracity of reliability of such evidence, this Panel came to the conclusion that Jan Ullrich engaged at least in blood doping in violation of Article 15.2 of the UCI Anti-Doping rules".

The German rider was suspected of being a part of the blood doping program overseen by Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes which was uncovered in Operacion Puerto.  Subsequent DNA tests showed that his blood was among the samples seized by Spanish authorities.

However, when Ullrich retired early in 2007, the Swiss authorities (Ullrich was living in Switzerland and riding under a Swiss licence) concluded that they had no jurisdiction over him, and closed their investigation.  The UCI appealed, and the CAS has now backed them up.

The ban imposed runs from May 2005 to his retirement in February of 2007, and thus nullifies his Tour podium placing, as well as other results during that time period, including wins in stage 20 of the 2006 Giro and his overall 2006 Tour de Suisse title.

The UCI issued a brief statement:

The International Cycling Union (UCI) acknowledges the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to impose a suspension of 2 years on the rider Jan Ullrich starting retroactively on August 2011, following the UCI’s appeal. All results achieved by the athlete on or after 1 May 2005 until his retirement, on February 26, 2007, are annulled.
 
The UCI will now examine in detail the reasoning of the CAS award.  In the meantime the UCI will not issue any further comments on the matter.

Courtesy UCI