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Jan Ullrich Says He's Innocent The German rider said people should follow the "until proven guilty" standard	By Ovidiu Panzariu, Sports Editor 19th of July 2006, 08:02 GMT Adjust text size:


Jan Ullrich was probably the most doomed cyclist in the last decade. And I will make a short recap of what happened to him after the 1997 Tour de France victory. First, he had to fight Italian rider Marco Pantani the next year. And it was Pantani's best year in his career. Ullrich came 2nd. Then, he was banned from winning the French competition by American Lance Armstrong, who managed a record of 7 wins in a row in Le Tour. Soon after the American decided to retire, Ullrich picked up a pretty harsh injury and was forced to stay out of the cycling world for a number of months. After forcing his comeback in Il Giro, the German rider now faces doping charges in the (now) famous "Operation Puerto". For those of you who haven't heard about it - although I doubt it - the latest doping scandal involves about 58 cyclists and further names for the world of football, tennis and athletics. Just hours before the Tour de France got under way, the German was suspended by his T-Mobile team due to his involvement in the doping affair. Ullrich has been on of the names in the 58-riders list made public by the Spanish investigators. Ican Basso and Francisco Mancebo were also on the list. From that point on, the German's life has literally become a nightmare. After being banned from Tour de France - just when he finally had the chance to win it - Ullrich now faces exclusion from his team. The T-Mobile officials said that, if Ullrich does not prove his innocence or if the situation does not come to a result in 3-weeks time, the rider will leave the team. As a consequence of that, the 1997 Tour de France winner stated, again, that he is innocent and hopes that this whole thing will end as soon as possible. "As in any country subject to the rule of law, the "until proven guilty" standard applies not only to me, but to every other person, too. At the recommendation of my lawyers, I will currently release no further public explanations", said an Ullrich statement earlier yesterday. The verdict in the "Operation Puerto" may take several weeks, though, since cycling is not the only sport involved in the affair.

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