How very very sad. The great dane, Bjarne Riis, winner of the Tour de France in 1996 has admitted taking EPO from '93 to '98. He is now a director of the CSC pro cycling team. Coincidentally, the team Tyler Hamilton was on when he got popped for dopping. Riis deposed five time winner Miguel Indurain '91-'95 on a mountaintop finish in the 1996 tour. This was the year when I first got interested in watching and recording the tour. I think I've watched and recorded every stage of the Tour de France since.
The following year Riis was deposed by his fellow team mate Jan Ullrich on the Telecom Team as Riiss missed a break on one of the final stages coming out of the Pyranees mountains and into Pamplona Spain. Ullrich had been working for Riis in that tour but was in the break. Riis couldn't get anyone to work for him to catch back up as they were going so fast down the mountains, and Ullrich couldn't hold back the beak. Indurain was there in Pamplona to greet Riis as he gave up his yellow jersey. Ullrich has now been caught up in the recent Spanish blood doping scandal.
A few years ago Ullrich got kicked off of the T-Mobile team, and lost his Adidas sponsorship, when he got drunk and ran his Porsche into a bicycle rack. There was also something about taking ecstacy.
And more news, Several of the Telecom riders (known as T-Mobile now) from that era have also come out and admitted doping. They are falling like a house of cards. Deitz, Henn, Boelts, and even more surprising, Erik Zabel and Rolf Aldag. They are now thinking about dropping the charges against Ullrich.
But what a mess. Riis said they could come and get his yellow jersey, as he had it in a cardboard box in his house, and pointed to the accomplishments of the CSC team now. But I just wonder if he would have had the career that he has had if he had not won the TDF.
I don't see how this can be good news for Landis even though it has no connection to his case.
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