Alberto Contador Doping Scandal About to Break

Doping expert gives German investigators documents he claims show Tour
winner Contador doped

The Associated Press
Published: July 31, 2007

BERLIN: German authorities said Tuesday they have received documents from
doping expert Werner Franke which he claims show Tour de France winner
Alberto Contador was involved in doping.

Franke said he has documents from last year's Operation Puerto doping
investigation in Spain which show that Contador, a Spaniard who won the
doping-marred Tour on Sunday, had taken HMG-Lepori as a testosterone booster
and an asthma product called TGN.

"We can confirm we have received the documents, and they will be
incorporated into procedures of the district attorney's office," Christian
Brockert, spokesman for Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office, told The
Associated Press.

Brockert said the federal office will meet with the district attorney's
office deemed to be responsible and assess the documents.

Contador, who rides for the Discovery Channel team, missed the 2006 Tour
when his former team, Liberty, was disqualified because he and four other
riders - plus the team director and doctor - were allegedly linked to
Operation Puerto.

The Spanish doping investigation is one of the largest scandals in cycling
history - at least 50 riders are suspected of getting sophisticated drug
services, including blood doping, from a Madrid clinic.

Contador said Saturday his name mistakenly turned up in the Puerto file.

"I was in the wrong team at the wrong time and somehow my name got among the
documents," Contador said, adding cycling's governing body corrected the
mistake.

He hasn't failed a doping test.

Franke, a molecular biologist, made his reputation by researching the
systematic sports doping that turned the former East Germany into an Olympic
powerhouse. He has clashed with Jan Ullrich, another rider linked to
Operation Puerto.

A German court imposed a gag order on Franke for publicly disclosing how
much the 1997 Tour winner paid the Madrid clinic, also based on documents
from the investigation. It was believed there wasn't enough evidence
establishing Ullrich, who has denied doping, as a customer.

But the case is headed back to court, because Ullrich's DNA samples since
have been matched to blood bags seized at the Madrid clinic.

"They weren't doing that for free," Franke said.

He isn't the first to say he possesses copies of the Operation Puerto
investigation in which Contador's name surfaces. France's Le Monde
newspaper, along with several German ones, have printed parts of documents.
More than a week ago, Germany's Bild and Suddeutsche Zeitung printed
documents which purport to show the customers of the Madrid clinic.

The initials A.C. were listed, surrounded by other initials that matched up
with Liberty riders.

Franke apparently has acquired other documents, saying only he got them "in
my briefcase" while Spanish police weren't watching.

Copies of the Operation Puerto investigation have surfaced so often in
Germany that at one point a Web site - unrelated to any legal body - ran
excerpts translated into German.

Doping allegations and suspicions have devastated the 2007 Tour. Three
riders, including former overall leader Michael Rasmussen, and two teams
were expelled during the three-week race. The International Cycling Union,
however, considers the expulsions a sign the organization did its job.

"The 2007 Tour de France suffered greatly from doping problems," the UCI
said in a statement Tuesday. "This was directly related to the significant
increase in the number of anti-doping controls."