D'Hont to challenge court gag order

By Susan Westemeyer

Former soigneur Jef d'Hont has said that he will challenge an injunciton prohibiting him from speaking publicly about doping products he allegedly gave Jan Ullrich, the German news agency sid reported. Ullrich won the injunction in court in early September. D'Hont has also refused to sign a cease and desist order which had a deadline of October 25.

D'Hont opened up the Team Telekom 1990s scandal in April, when he went public with details of an organized doping program at the team, where he worked as a soigneur. Subsequently a number of riders on that team, including Bjarne Riis, Erik Zabel and Rolf Aldag confessed to having used EPO. The team stopped its dealings with team doctors Andreas Schmid and Lothar Heinrich, who were subsequently fired by the Freiburg University Clinic.

In June, d'Hont claimed that Ullrich had used doping products as well, and that he himself had one time injected Ullrich with EPO. a statement he later retracted. Ullrich has consistently denied having used performance enhancing drugs.