The German national team from was written in the stars under former national trainer Peter Weibel. Weibel consulted an astrologer to help pick the team, he said.
Michael Waidmann of Bremen was the one who read horoscopes for Weibel from 1998 to 2005. “This man was a phenomena,” Weibel told Focus magazine, according to the SID news agency. “At first I was doubtful, but he helped me to sort riders according to their ability and character.”
The astrologist “predicted everything exactly: health problems, the chances of crashes, performance breakdowns, the probability of using addictive drugs, rider's possibilities.”
Few of the riders involved over the years - and they included the likes of Jan UIlrich - knew about the astrological help, but some who did also consulted him personally, Weibel said.
Weibel had worked for the Bund Deutsche Radfahrer from 1972 until he was suspended in 2007, under suspicion of having supplied doping products to amateur riders in the 1980s and 1990s.