FRANKFURT (AP) — The former Telekom and T-Mobile cycling teams engaged in systematic blood doping between 1995-2006 and riders Andreas Kloeden and Matthias Kessler used illegal blood transfusions during the 2006 Tour de France, according to an independent probe.
A three-man commission looking into doping presented its 63-page report Wednesday after a two-year investigation. The news magazine der Spiegel published the findings last month.
"The systematic doping under medical control was taken to perfection," said the commission's chairman, lawyer Hans Joachim Schaefer.
The panel looked into the activities of two Freiburg University Clinic doctors who allegedly implemented a a blood doping system for Team Telekom, later known as T-Mobile and now disbanded.
The probe was commissioned by the Freiburg University. The panel concluded that the two doctors, Lothar Heinrich and Andreas Schmid, acted without the knowledge of the university and for their own benefit. They were fired in 2007.
The commission interviewed 77 witnesses, examined receipts, bank statements and other documents and had 58,800 blood samples retested.
The panel said Kloeden and Kessler received illegal transfusions of their own blood during the 2006 Tour, along with teammate Patrik Sinkewitz.
Sinkewitz' former girlfriend drove the three in July 2006 from Strasbourg, France, to Freiburg and back, the commission's report said.
Kloeden now rides for Astana and has always denied doping. He finished second in the 2006 Tour after winner Floyd Landis of the United States was exposed for doping.
Astana team officials at the Giro d'Italia were not immediately available for comment.
Kessler is serving a doping ban until July 26 after testing positive for testosterone.
Sinkewitz tested positive for testosterone in an out-of-competition test before the 2007 Tour de France, causing German television to withdraw live coverage of the race. He was banned for one year, half the usual suspension, because he cooperated with German investigators and gave details about doping in cycling.
The commission said the two doctors began implementing systematic EPO doping for Team Telekom during a training camp on Mallorca in January 1995. Already a year before that, the team used human growth hormone, the commission said.
The Freiburg prosecutors are conducting their own probe but spokesman Wolfgang Maier said no riders were involved.
"We are investigating against doctors, a pharmacist and former team leaders," Maier said.
