Jan Ullrich is Being Investigated in the "Saiz Doping Scandal"

If the Italians are going through a great scandal regarding the sport of football, the Spaniards are just starting to get the hang of the one in the cycling zone. Ever since the "Festina affair" ended, the media did not write so much about a doping scandal until this "Manolo Saiz affair". And that's mainly because greater names seem to have a lot to do with the scandal. After Santiago Botero and Oscar Sevilla were, more or less, investigated by the Spanish authorities, German cyclist Jan Ullrich is the new name in the headlines.

In Sunday's edition of Spanish newspaper "El Pais", a great article refers strictly to the above named situation. The Spanish prosecutors - because that's where the investigations took off in the first place - have offered the media priceless information regarding the stages of the investigation. This way, we find out that not less than 58 cyclists are involved in the whole affair, and benefited from Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes' "treatment", under the close watch of Manolo Saiz.

As Ullrich is concerned, the story gets more complicated, since the Spanish authorities are still checking him out in terms of two code names - actually, every cyclist received one. In his case, the names were "Jan" and "Son of Rudicio". The first one refers to his first name, while the second gives us the name of his T-Mobile director and former trainer - for the past 2 years - Rudy Pevenage.

And, if all of that seem pretty hard to demonstrate and considered as evidence - which is how I would look at it - the next pieces of information are more convincing. It seems that the Spanish investigators found about the existence of some receipts, in total value of 1900 euros, made out for banned substances in Jan's name. More, the same code name was found in several tapes from 2004, in Fuentes' residence.

The German rider - former Tour de France winner in 1997 - refused to answer these allegations, stating that he never met Eufemiano Fuentes and that this was all there was to it. Jan Ullrich is the second name that links T-Mobile Team with the "Saiz affair", after Spaniard Oscar Sevilla.