Jörg Jaksche allegedly named some names during his 2007 interrogation (Image credit: Luc Claessen)
By Susan Westemeyer
Jörg Jaksche is said to have named names in his interrogation by the German Bundeskriminalamt (federal police) in July 2007, names which include individuals still active in cycling, such as Rudy Pevenage and Bjarne Riis.
In July 2007, Jaksche confessed to having been a customer of Operación Puerto's Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes. According to the German tabloid Bild am Sonntag, the German rider was interrogated on July 25 and 26, 2007, for ten hours each day. This weekend, the publication claimed to have received a copy of the transcript of the interrogations.
He is said to have named his former team manger at then-Team CSC, Bjarne Riis, former Telekom team manager Rudy Pevenage (now with Rock Racing), former Telekom team doctors Andreas Schmid and Lothar Heinrich, and Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, among others.
In addition, Jaksche apparently claimed that he paid Pevenage for doping products in the Vuelta a España 1999. According to Bild, Pevenage gave him EPO every two days. In addition, Pevenage and Heinrich allegedly told him to ride the Tour de Suisse that year without any doping, as police investigations were expected. The tabloid claims that while at Telekom, Jaksche used EPO, growth hormones, Synachten and cortisone.
Jaksche rode for Riis and Team CSC in 2004. During this time, according to Bild, Riis decided who should take how much of what product, with Jaksche saying how he was helped to avoid a positive doping control. Team Saxo Bank did not have a comment on the story.
He also is alleged to have claimed that Claudio Sprenger, who was team doctor at Team Polti for Jaksche's first two pro years, 1997 and 1998, injected him with insulin. Sprenger, who is now team doctor for Team Milram, denied the claim. "It's one man's word against the other. Dr. Sprenger tells us that there is nothing to these charges. We are looking into it," Milram spokesman Max Biermann told cyclingnews.
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Jaksche would neither confirm nor deny the statements, telling the dpa press agency that he had not released the information, and that any subsequent investigations had already been closed.
