Sinkewitz asks for B-sample test

Patrik Sinkewitz has asked to have his B-sample tested, the German cycling federation has confirmed. The results of that test are expected Sunday, at the earliest. It was announced earlier this week that he had tested positive on June 8 for testosterone, and he was subsequently suspended by his team, T-Mobile.

The German television sender ZDF said that there may be procedural problems with Sinkewitz' test. ZDF revealed that it had information that the control sheet for the test indicated that the room where the sample was taken was open to the public.

Sylvia Schenk, former president of the German cycling federation, the Bund Deutscher Radfahrer (BDR), has called it "a formal error, at most. But right now there is a lot of indications [that we have a doping case]."

NADA, the German National Anti-Doping Agency, has rejected the claim and said the test was done according to preocedure.

Schenk also has called on T-Mobile to fire Sport Director Rolf Aldag, claiming that he knew that there were suspicions about Sinkewitz, which he did not follow up on. "It's right, that Frau Schenk has spoken to me of her suspicions," Aldag told the dpa press agency. She called him in May to tell him of her suspicions, whereupon Aldag got in touch with the BDR.

Schenk's concerns go back to the 2000 World Championships, when Sinkewitz was on the German U23 team. He was withdrawn from the team following the time trial, in which he finished 33rd. "But only because he was sick," said Burkhardt Bremer, the BDR's Sport Director.

"Bremer told me explicitly, that there was nothing against Sinkewitz at the 2000 Worlds," Aldag contended. It was rumoured that Sinkewitz had a high hematocrit value at an altitude training camp in Colorado before the Worlds, a value which could indicate the use of EPO. "I can't discredit a rider on the basis of such suspicions."