Jan Ullrich denies doping, wins back pay

Former Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich won nearly a half-million dollars in back pay from his one-season run at Team Coast in 2003 after a German court ruled in his favor Wednesday.
 
The 1997 Tour winner was back at the center of attention Wednesday with a court appearance in a long-running dispute between the now-tainted German star and the defunct Coast team, whose manager, Günther Dahms, refused to pay part of Ullrich’s salary because he said the rider was doping.
 
“I did not use any forbidden doping materials or methods banned under regulations during that period,” Ullrich said during the period of January to March, 2007, at Team Coast. The team was later renamed Team Bianchi. “I’m glad I could speak the truth about this matter. Dahms is a fraud. He looked me in the eye when he knew he didn’t have any money to pay me.”
 
A German court agreed and ruled that Dahms pay the now-retired rider $433,400, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
 
Ullrich — who turns 35 on December 2 — continues to deny he used banned performance-enhancing products at any point of his career despite the admission of several of his former Telekom teammates.
 
Such riders as 1996 Tour champ Bjarne Riis and then-Telekom teammate Udo Bolts and Ralf Aldag were among nearly a dozen riders who admitted to using such products as the banned blood-booster EPO in the mid-1990s during Telekom’s heyday.
 
Ullrich turned pro with Telekom in 1995 and left the German team to join Team Coast in 2003, only to return to the renamed T-Mobile team in 2004.
 
Ullrich was linked to the Operación Puerto scandal in 2006 and was among nine riders banned from the 2006 Tour. He was later fired by T-Mobile and has not raced since. He retired in February 2007.
 
 
 
 
 
 

FILED UNDER: Road