Cycling team T-Mobile has sacked sporting director Rudy Pevenage after he was implicated with former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich in a Spanish blood-doping scandal, the SID news agency reported on Sunday.
BERLIN: Cycling team T-Mobile has sacked sporting director Rudy Pevenage after he was implicated with former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich in a Spanish blood-doping scandal, the SID news agency reported on Sunday.
"The contract linking T-Mobile to Pevenage has been retrospectively stopped on June 30," the team's general manager, Olaf Ludwig, was quoted saying.
No announcement was made about Ullrich, 32, winner of the 1997 Tour and tipped as a leading yellow jersey contender this year before he was dropped just before the race started in Strasbourg on July 1.
The German and his Spanish team mate Oscar Sevilla, Italy's Ivan Basso, Spaniard Francesco Mancebo and Australian Allan Davies were among nine riders excluded from the Tour after being linked to the Operation Puerto doping investigation.
According to Spanish police files, Pevenage, 51, was a client of cycling doctor Eufemiano Fuentes who allegedly provided an illegal blood-boosting service and doping products to athletes.
The Belgian has advised Ullrich since the beginning of his professional career, overseeing his 1997 Tour victory while sporting director of T-Mobile forerunner, Team Telekom.
But Pevenage fell out with team manager Walter Godefroot when Ullrich left in 2002 after being convicted of amphetamines and drink-driving offences.
Ullrich was readmitted to T-Mobile in 2004 but, although his mentor was tolerated as a "personal adviser" by team management, he was not allowed into the team's inner circle.
Godefroot retired late last year and, at Ullrich's insistence, the Belgian was readmitted as the sporting director charged with Tour de France preparations.
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