Tour de France 2007

Werner Franke, a German described as an expert in anti-doping efforts, accused Alberto Contador of being “the greatest swindle in sporting history.” Franke claims to have possession of documents from Operation Puerto with Alberto Contador’s name on them, and claims to have records of banned products used by Contador.

Appearing on German ZDF television, Franke proclaimed “The name of this Mr Contador appears on several occasions on the court and police documents….All of this has been simply concealed and hidden under the carpet whilst the name Contador was erased from the list of suspicious riders.”

In discussing a summary of the evidence that spanish police amassed against riders caught in the Operation Puerto investigation last year, VeloNews Correspondent Andrew Hood wrote last week;

After a thorough review of the document, VeloNews found only two mentions of Contador. Neither of those two references could be linked to illicit doping products or doping practices, officials later decided.

The first reference to Contador is mentioned on a list of then-Liberty Seguros teammates (spelling mistakes remain as is) that appear on a document later to identified as a list of training schedules for members of the team:

En el documento 3 se observan marcados de distinta forma los nombres de los corredores: Dariuz BARANOWSKY; Josefa BELOKI; Ginpaolo CARUSO; Alberto CONTADOR; Allan DAVIS; David ETXEBARRÍA; Igor GONZÁLEZ DE GALDEANO; Roberto HERAS; Jorg JAKSCHE; Isidro NOZAL; Sergio PAULINHO; Nuno RIBEIRO; Luis León SÁNCHEZ; Michele SCARPONI; Marcos SERRANO y Ángel VICIOSO.

The second reference includes initials of riders’ name that appeared on another training document:

En el reverso del documento 31 se localizan unas anotaciones manuscritas con el título “INDIVIDUALIZACIÓN” en el que se identifican a distintos corredores del equipo LIBERTY-SEGUROS WÜRTH por sus iniciales: R. H. (Roberto HERAS), M. S. (Marcos SERRANO), J. B. (Joseba BELOKI), I. G. (Igor GONZÁLEZ), A. V. (Ángel VICIOSO), J. J. (Jorg JAKSCHE), A. D. (Alan DAVIS), L. (sin identificar), A. C. (Alberto CONTADOR) .

Contador’s name was also heard in taped phone conversations of Fuentes, but authorities said his name appears only in reference to conversations about race results.

So, we have confirmation that Contador’s name appeared, along with his Liberty-Seguros-Wurth teammates, in two of Fuentes’ documents, but police, judges and UCI officials reviewing the documents last year concluded the same thing; that there was no indication that Contador was doping. Hood goes on to write, “Even the elusive Fuentes, speaking last year on Spanish radio, said he never worked with Contador.”

Prof. Franke alleges that this has all been swept under the rug, by which he must be referring to the public dismissal of charges against Contador and four other riders who had been included in initial lists of riders whose names appeared in Fuentes documents, and were therefore under suspicion. Again, from VeloNews July 26, 2006;

“Five Astaná riders who were forced out of the 2006 Tour de France because of alleged links to a blood doping investigation have been formally cleared by Spanish courts.”

“Joseba Beloki, Isidro Nozal, Sergio Paulinho, Allan Davis and Alberto Contador have all received a written document officially clearing them of any links to the ongoing “Operación Puerto,” the Spanish newspaper El Diario Vasco reported Wednesday.”

“The five riders received a legal document signed by Manuel Sánchez Martín, secretary for the Spanish court heading up the “Operación Puerto” investigation, stating, “there are not any type of charges against them nor have there been adopted any type of legal action against them.”"

If Prof. Franke does have evidence that actually links Contador to doping it would be awfully good of him to share that with the authorities, UCI, WADA, and the press so it can be examined. It’s possible…given everything that has transpired in the sport in the past year, but it is also possible that we have switched from cleaning up the sport to mounting a press sponsored witch hunt. Personally, I want to see the documents before I rush to judgement on Contador. A lot of people who have been fighting bitterly to clean up the sport must have decided to look the other way in Contador’s case, or maybe just maybe he really is clean.

UPDATE: Some further information on Werner Franke. Professor Franke is 67, and former President of the European Cell Biology Organization. Professor Franke taught at the University of Freiberg and was head of a department at the German Cancer Research Center. Professor Franke and his wife have researched and written extensively on the subject of athletes doping, and abusing drugs. They are perhaps most noted for exposing research conducted in the former East Germany which lead to programs of illegal treatments of young athletes. He is an ardent critic of drug abuse in sports. Professor Franke is also a member of the American Society of Cell Biology, which has a brief biography of him on its website.