A soigneur for Ineos Grenadiers has left the Tour de France a week after being named in an alleged connection with Erfurt-based German physician Mark Schmidt, who was at the centre of the Operation Aderlass doping investigation in 2019.
Reports first aired in a documentary by ARD , before the Slovenian soigneur for Ineos, David Rozman, was named in subsequent stories by the Irish Independent and Sunday Times as having sent text messages to Schmidt.
"Following recent media allegations, David has now received a request from the ITA to attend an interview," the Ineos Grenadiers said in a statement released on Thursday.
"Accordingly, he has stepped back from race duties and has left the Tour [de France].
"To date, the team has received no evidence from any relevant authority. In response to the team’s request for information, the ITA has advised the team that it cannot share any further information due to legal and confidentiality restrictions.
"Both David and the Team will of course cooperate with the ITA and any other authority.
"The team reiterates its zero-tolerance policy and is unable to comment further at this time."
The Operation Aderlass investigation emerged in February of 2019, when the Austrian Federal Criminal Police Office raided the hotels of skiers at the Nordic World Ski Championships, leading to the arrest of nine individuals.
When investigators dug deeper, they found a clinic in Erfurt with illegal performance-enhancing substances, equipment for transfusions and a centrifuge. At the centre of the inquiry was Schmidt, who was a team doctor for the Gerolsteiner and Milram teams in the early 2000s.
The inquiry led to charges against 50 individuals from nine countries, and suspensions for riders such as Georg Preidler, Stefan Denifl, Kristijan Koren, Kristijan Durasek, Borut Bozic, Alessandro Petacchi, Pirmin Lang, Björn Thurau and mountain biker Christina Kollman-Forstner.
Petacchi, who had already retired, was handed a retroactive ban based on testimony from his former teammate Danilo Hondo, who alleged that he used Schmidt to receive blood transfusions along with Petacchi in the same room in 2012, accusations that Petacchi denied.
It was around the same time that Rozman, a staff member for Team Sky, was alleged to have exchanged text messages with Schmidt, which the ARD journalists found suspicious.
When the reports of Rozman's connections to Schmidt surfaced at the Tour de France last week, Ineos Grenadiers stated they had not been informed of any allegations "by an appropriate authority".
On Thursday, the team reiterated the sentiment in a statement to the media and added that they have not been asked to participate in any inquiry.
However, the team confirmed that Rozman was contacted in April "informally" by the International Testing Agency, the independent anti-doping authority that performs testing and intelligence-led investigations for cycling at the behest of the UCI.
"David immediately notified the Team of his meeting with the ITA and his recollection of the contents of the meeting," the team statement read. "Although the ITA assured David at the time that he was not under investigation, Ineos promptly commissioned a thorough review by an external law firm.
"The Team has acted responsibly and with due process, taking the allegations seriously whilst acknowledging that David is a long-standing, dedicated member of the Team. The Team continues to assess the circumstances and any relevant developments, and has formally requested any relevant information from the ITA."
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