[search]

yeah, I guess analyzing those will take a little while. For a start it confirm that there is a list already though, probably with names handed over by the doctor

[Joelsim]

Aye, it does.

[AG]

I wonder if these bags are going to be able to be used ....

cant imagine Germany covering it up like Spain though - so hopefully

[just some guy]

This has an Oil for drugs feel about it, as in it will lead to something really big

[search]

I can think of a couple of others who may well be nervous right now. I just wonder how long Schmidt has been at it and how many clients he had because time and scale are the big risks in this kind of operation.

"Early 2000's" is what is says here. Schmidt is only 40 though and started his studies in 1996/97, so that probably doesn't quite add up.

thinking about it, it could also go further back, seeing Schmidt's background, and how he was connected.

Last week Stefan Matschiner confirmed that Schmidt's centrifuge was the one used by him in the Vienna Bloodbank affair a couple of years ago (until ~2009 or so). When Matschiner was caught, he sold it to Schmidt, together with a good amount of customers.

Erfurt was named as one the branches of the Vienna headquarter back then (until ~2005), and much of the knowhow used in Vienna went back to GDR days.

https://germanroadraces.de/?p=119868

Back in those GDR days, Mark Schmidt's mother Heidrun was doctor of the "Turbine Erfurt" sports club, where systematic doping was normality.

Until the end of 2018, his father Ansgar (now arrested as well as apparent "head" of this doping ring), in the leading positions for sports in Thuringia for 20 years , was working as a lawyer for "Spilker & Collegen" in Erfurt. That's Heinz-Jochen Spilker, former German national coach in athletics, heavily involved in doping with anabolic steroids. He even has an own model going back to him, the so called "Hammer Modell". That didn't stop anyone from making him the Vice-President of the Thuringian Sports Association of course.

https://www.fnp.de/sport/sport-mix/thueringen-aerzten-juristen-funktionaeren-erfolg-wichtiger-ist-fairness-recht-11814175.html

Seven years ago he was the lawyer of Andreas Franke in the UV treatment case (involving Marcel Kittel and so on), who's doctor's office is around the corner.

[L'arri]

thinking about it, it could also go further back, seeing Schmidt's background, and how he was connected.

Last week Stefan Matschiner confirmed that Schmidt's centrifuge was the one used by him in the Vienna Bloodbank affair a couple of years ago (until ~2009 or so). When Matschiner was caught, he sold it to Schmidt, together with a good amount of customers.

Erfurt was named as one the branches of the Vienna headquarter back then (until ~2005), and much of the knowhow used in Vienna went back to GDR days.

https://germanroadraces.de/?p=119868

Back in those GDR days, Mark Schmidt's mother Heidrun was doctor of the "Turbine Erfurt" sports club, where systematic doping was normality.

Until the end of 2018, his father Ansgar (now arrested as well as apparent "head" of this doping ring), in the leading positions for sports in Thuringia for 20 years , was working as a lawyer for "Spilker & Collegen" in Erfurt. That's Heinz-Jochen Spilker, former German national coach in athletics, heavily involved in doping with anabolic steroids. He even has an own model going back to him, the so called "Hammer Modell". That didn't stop anyone from making him the Vice-President of the Thuringian Sports Association of course.

https://www.fnp.de/sport/sport-mix/thueringen-aerzten-juristen-funktionaeren-erfolg-wichtiger-ist-fairness-recht-11814175.html

Seven years ago he was the lawyer of Andreas Franke in the UV treatment case (involving Marcel Kittel and so on), who's doctor's office is around the corner.

Excellent stuff, search. Wow, this runs deep.

What a business. Buying and selling equipment and client lists, hunting for new clients. If there is demand, it's never just going to end with Fuentes or Ferrari or Schmidt. Someone will take over the business and assume the risks.

Schmidt had done pretty well to minimise his risks but there are so many people involved that he could never be sure. That's why the authorities busting his father and the suggestion of sports body complicity are probably the worst outcomes for him because now he has lost his protection.

[Joelsim]

We still don't know what he eats for his dinner on Tuesdays though.

[search]

it's such a rotton system over there though, with former big style dopers having major positions in the sports authorities now, keeping people like Schmidt and Franke in touch.

Two other lawyers working for Spilker used to be politicians, responsible for the field of justice and home affairs in the state parliament - which includes all doping affairs.

And wonder why the investigtors are sitting in Munich? Because the Thurigians saw no reason for investigations:

https://erfurt.thueringer-allgemeine.de/web/erfurt/startseite/detail/-/specific/Skandal-um-Sportmediziner-Trotz-Hinweisen-verzichtet-Thueringen-auf-Dopingermit-1983953589

You may wonder why...

[just some guy]

Yay the codename game begins

https://www.twitter.com/hajoseppelt/status/1103295240125992961

[neppe]

Lucky Luke! What a sacrelige. It should have been Rantanplan.

[L'arri]

Kronen Zeitung reports today that five of the forty bags belong to Denifl alone. Maybe Rasmussen's 15-20 athlete estimate for that many bags is a bit generous.

https://www.krone.at/1878755 (DE)

I also read in an earlier article that Denifl's girlfriend Melanie, who works in fashion, had been questioned and had given a statement. Hard to keep this stuff private from loved ones.

[search]

some news from German media:

- there's a Kazakh person called "The General" acting as an intermediary between the (Kazakh?) athletes and the doping network. Whether this is his real military rank or not is unknown
- the Italian mafia is apparently involved in the background, preventing people from talking too much
- Schmidt's assistant has made her testimony already. Schmidt himself will do so next week - and fully cooperate
- the blood is stored frozen (instead of in a normal fridge, like Fuentes did back then). Dürr had samples re-injected three years after

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/sport/doping-erfurt-langlauf-1.4360318

[Drummer Boy]

- there's a Kazakh person called "The General" acting as an intermediary between the (Kazakh?) athletes and the doping network. Whether this is his real military rank or not is unknown.

Well, Vinokourov was awarded the rank of honorary colonel in the Kazakh army in 2000. Does that count?


Maybe he's since been granted a promotion. 

[search]

Worried for Gogl

he now announced his return to racing for the Ronde van Drenthe on Sunday, so everything should be fine

[search]

https://twitter.com/hajoseppelt/status/1108279667721670656

a couple of days ago it was also reported that more names could be revealed today

[search]

21 athletes have been identified so far, from 5 different sports, three of those Wintersports.

as Hawaii is mentioned is one of the countries where transfusions took place, it's likely that Triathlon is one of them.

http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/doping-ermittlungen-im-fall-des-erfurter-arztes-mark-s-bluttransfusionen-auf-hawaii-und-in-suedkorea-a-1258799.html

So probably we are talking about athletes from Cycling, Triathlon, Cross Country Skiing and (as I would think makes most sense) Biathlon & Nordic Combined.

[search]

https://twitter.com/hajoseppelt/status/1127581103773110272

well, can't say I'm too surprised. And he even got an 8 on the UCI index of suspicion back then btw...

[LukasCPH]

Hondo has also been summarily sacked by Swiss Cycling where he was the national coach, directing the national team as recently as the Tour de Romandie.

[Joelsim]

Hondo has also been summarily sacked by Swiss Cycling where he was the national coach, directing the national team as recently as the Tour de Romandie.

Swiss rolled.

His defence was full of holes I suspect.

I’ll get my coat...

[search]

https://twitter.com/cirogazzetta/status/1128554957312012291

[Mellow Velo]

https://twitter.com/cirogazzetta/status/1128554957312012291

Kristijan Koren DNS today at the Giro....

UCI issue a statement. Riders provisionally suspended:

https://www.uci.org/inside-uci/press-releases/uci-statement-on-operation-aderlass

[LukasCPH]

Kristijan Koren DNS today at the Giro....

UCI issue a statement. Riders provisionally suspended:

https://www.uci.org/inside-uci/press-releases/uci-statement-on-operation-aderlass

Petacchi as well. He's fired by RAI where he was commentating on the Giro.

And he's replaced by ... drumroll ... Stefano Garzelli. You couldn't make it up.
https://dopeology.org/people/Stefano_Garzelli/

[search]

Preidler and Denifl now both banned for 4 years...

https://www.uci.org/inside-uci/press-releases/uci-statement-on-georg-preidler-and-stefan-denifl

... for "using blood doping at least from June 2014 till the end of 2018" (Denifl) and "at least from February 2018 till the end of 2018"

https://www.oeadr.at/de/intern:36/pressemitteilungen-2019

That doesn't quite fit with what they said in their confession, I think?!

[AG]

Interesting article about Petacci

https://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/article/2019/08/25/petacchi-cops-doping-ban-offences-2012-2013?fbclid=IwAR3u7oXBKrYrycV2eNRJvycsOm_Ny53hVC0krXkI-Z-uKSSLhHLbgsapjfc

essentially says he has signed an acceptance of consequences as he doesnt have the finances or energy to fight.  (His wife is sick and so is his father)

Says he admitted it last time, so if he had done this he would admit it again ...     hmmm

[Drummer Boy]

Georg Preidler charged with fraud in Operation Aderlass doping inquiry

Preidler admitted to having his blood withdrawn by doctor Mark Schmidt, who is accused of providing blood transfusions to numerous athletes, but denied having it re-infused.
 

Preidler is accused of "regularly practising blood doping and also taking growth hormones, starting with the Giro d'Italia in the spring of 2017 until his doping confession," prosecutor Thomas Willam announced, according to APA.

According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, because Preidler raced at the UCI Road World Championships in Innsbruck, he was contractually obligated to abide by anti-doping rules set by the UCI and those of the race organisers. Not doing so, they say, is criminal fraud and estimate the damages at 250,000 euros.

Sort of the opposite of "home field advantage" then? 

[search]

okay, so Preidler's "confession" was complete bullsh*t in the end.

There was a first trial already btw, also in Austria, for the same reason. Mountainbiker Christina Kollmann-Forstner got sentenced to eight months probation

https://www.thueringer-allgemeine.de/sport/erfurter-dopingskandal-erstes-urteil-nach-operation-aderlass-id226769729.html

[Drummer Boy]

UCI Statement on Kristijan Koren and Borut Bozic

The UCI announces that it has sanctioned Mr. Kristijan Koren and Mr. Borut Bozic for anti-doping rule violations.

Mr. Koren has been sanctioned with a period of ineligibility of 2 years for anti-doping rule violations committed in 2011 and 2012 (i.e. use of prohibited methods/substances) based on information received from the law enforcement authorities of Austria.

Mr. Bozic has been sanctioned with a period of ineligibility of 2 years for anti-doping rule violations committed in 2012 (i.e. use of prohibited methods/substances) based on information received from the law enforcement authorities of Austria.

Both cases have been resolved via an acceptance of consequences as provided for by the World Anti‐Doping Code and the UCI Anti‐Doping Rules.

Both resolutions can be appealed by the competent National Anti‐Doping Organisation and the World Anti‐Doping Agency.

[LukasCPH]

Đurasek now also banned for four years:
UCI statement on Kristijan Durasek

The UCI announces that Mr. Kristijan Durasek has been sanctioned with a period of ineligibility of 4 years for anti‐doping rule violations committed from 2016 to 2019 (use of prohibited methods/substances) based on information received from the law enforcement authorities of Austria.

The case has been resolved via an acceptance of consequences as provided for by the World Anti‐Doping Code and the UCI Anti‐Doping Rules.

The resolution can be appealed by the competent National Anti‐Doping Organisation and the World Anti‐Doping Agency.

[search]

The was a press conference in Munich the other day, exposing some Aderlass cycling-related stuff I hadn't heard about before:

In 2018, Dr Schmidt was doping cyclists during (among others) the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, Tour de Romandie, Tour de Suisse, Tour of California, Tour of Turkey and Tour de Pologne.

Also an "established pro from Switzerland, but not a star" was among Schmidt's customers.

https://www.nzz.ch/sport/blutdoping-an-der-tour-de-suisse-ld.1530118

Among the cyclists involved, there are also two German ones which haven't been named yet. According to the ARD, those are "from high-class teams. They have also participated in the Tour de France [whether in 2018 or not is not speciefied though]. One of them is still active [which probably means, that the other one meanwhile has retired]".

https://www.sportschau.de/doping/Doping-Erfurt-Anklage-gegen-Arzt-Mark-Schmidt-100.html

It's Sunday, so of course tried to track down those two riders. As far as I can see, in general, so far 5 cyclists were named (and banned):

- Georg Preidler
- Stefan Denifl
- Kristijan Koren
- Kristijan Đurasek
- Borut Božič

Taking the seven races listed above, these are the ones they participated in in 2018:

Tour de Romandie
- Kristijan Đurasek

Giro d'Italia
- Georg Preidler
- Kristijan Koren

Tour of California
- Kristijan Đurasek

Tour de Suisse
- Stefan Denifl

Tour de France
- Kristijan Đurasek

Tour de Pologne
- Georg Preidler (won a stage)

Tour of Turkey
- Kristijan Đurasek

so this is no help to find the German riders, as potentially Schmidt could have just dealt with the listed ones.

There are not too many active German riders who did the Tour de France though:

-      Arndt, Nikias
-      Buchmann, Emanuel
-      Burghardt, Marcus
-      Degenkolb, John
-      Fröhlinger, Johannes (to retire next week)
-      Geschke, Simon
-      Greipel, André
-      Kluge, Roger
-      Knees, Christian
-      Kämna, Lennard
-      Martens, Paul
-      Martin, Tony
-      Politt, Nils
-      Schachmann, Maximilian
-      Schillinger, Andreas
-      Selig, Rüdiger
-      Sieberg, Marcel
-      Sütterlin, Jasha
-      Zabel, Rick

Tracking down the retired riders is a bit more difficult, as it's not specified that he was still active in 2018 - so he could potentially have retired long ago (like Petacchi). Those who did retire over the past 7 years (I couldn't be bothered to go back any further) and did the Tour de France are:

-   (retired in 2019)      Kittel, Marcel
-   (retired in 2019)      Wagner, Robert
-   (retired in 2017)      Gretsch, Patrick
-   (retired in 2016)      Ciolek, Gerald
-   (retired in 2016)      Gerdemann Linus
-   (retired in 2016)      Nerz, Dominik
-   (retired in 2016)      Voss, Paul
-   (retired in 2016)      Wegmann, Fabian
-   (retired in 2015)      Förster, Robert
-   (retired in 2015)      Schumacher, Stefan
-   (retired in 2014)      Sinkewitz, Patrik
-   (retired in 2014)      Voigt, Jens
-   (retired in 2013)      Fothen, Markus
-   (retired in 2013)      Grabsch, Bert
-   (retired in 2013)      Hondo, Danilo
-   (retired in 2013)      Klier, Andreas
-   (retired in 2013)      Klöden, Andreas
-   (retired in 2013)      Schröder, Björn

so if the ARD is correct, one of the names from the upper list and one from that at the bottom is likely to pop up in the media soonish

[Joelsim]

Could we assume that someone like Sütterlin or Greipel isn’t involved, given he’s just transferred? Would be odd to start at a new team if you know you’re under investigation.

When did Fröhlinger announce his retirement?

Patrick Müller has just retired too.