Klöden named in Freiburg report

[hfer07]

Klodi got a deal. It cost Armstrong $500,000 to make his issues go away.

that's what Connected/Influential teammates are good for!!! So Klodi will slave his tale off next TDF for his masters LA/JB.

 

[pedaling squares]

Patrick Sinkewitz put him in the car for the 2006 TDF clinic "road trip"....

I don't think that this, by itself, is sufficient evidence. You have to take Sinkewitz at his word, and as a doper who is cooperating with officials in exchange for leniency (http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,515459,00.html), his word can be questioned. Also consider Patrik's original stance when he tested positive, "Me? Why me? I don't know anything about it. This can't be," (http://velonews.com/article/12808). So he is already on record as a liar.

Common sense tells us that Kloden did exactly what Sinkewitz said he did, but common sense never convicted anyone by itself. All the article told us was what Patrik and his lady said, and that a team staffer corroborated their story to the extent that none of the named people were at the dinner table. I just hope there is more evidence than that, or the poor German public wasted a lot of money on this investigation.

 

[Mellow Velo]

You don't pay the feds 25 grand to keep their "common sense" to themselves.

 

[knewcleardaze]

Those guys live in Switzerland for tax reasons?

 

[bianchigirl]

Sorry, am I getting this straight? Kloeden is paying 25K to make an investigation go away that, if he's innocent as he claims he is, would uncover nothing against him?

Isn't that like me paying a parking fine I didn't get so I can keep driving?

 

[Barnaby]

When did Tony Soprano move to Bonn?

 

[progressor]

Wow! That's an interesting way to become innocent! Much cheaper and more effective than Landis.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

...Switzerland. Camenzind, Richard, Dufaux, Zulle, Gianetti, Jarmann. Such talent for such a small country......... At least Rominger was clean.

Hahaha! Unless by clean you mean "never tested positive".

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry, am I getting this straight? Kloeden is paying 25K to make an investigation go away that, if he's innocent as he claims he is, would uncover nothing against him?

Isn't that like me paying a parking fine I didn't get so I can keep driving?

depends.. it also saves paying soliticors, having the distraction of the charges etc, thats what he will claim anyway...

shame they couldnt offer vino the same deal..

 

[craig1985]

Hahaha! Unless by clean you mean "never tested positive".

Then technically so is Lance Armstrong

*hides*

 

[python]

I don't think that this, by itself, is sufficient evidence. You have to take Sinkewitz at his word, and as a doper who is cooperating with officials in exchange for leniency (http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,515459,00.html), his word can be questioned. Also consider Patrik's original stance when he tested positive, "Me? Why me? I don't know anything about it. This can't be," (http://velonews.com/article/12808). So he is already on record as a liar.

Common sense tells us that Kloden did exactly what Sinkewitz said he did, but common sense never convicted anyone by itself. All the article told us was what Patrik and his lady said, and that a team staffer corroborated their story to the extent that none of the named people were at the dinner table. I just hope there is more evidence than that, or the poor German public wasted a lot of money on this investigation.

agreed. i still don't understand how this german law works. looks like freiburg doctors or any one under the investigation can stop it dead only if they can scrape enough to pay the court. sounds like a legal bribe to me.

 

[goggalor]

Then technically so is Lance Armstrong

*hides*

No, no, no. With Lance it's "never officially tested positive".

 

[Escarabajo]

So is Andy Schleck the only person to have shared a TdF podium with LA who has not been caught or implicated in a doping scandal?

Sorry but you have to count LA himself in doping scandals too.

(Off topic a little bit)

 

[Digger]

Just wondering if any journos will actually ask Lance why he is continuing to want a guy like Kloden on his team, if he is so anti-doping?
Kimmage's words last January are again relevant when we see Andreas...'Lance, what is it about these dopers that you admire so much?'

Kloden being given emplyment by RS is again prolonging the cycle of doping. The dopers look after each other, as long as no confession is made. Basso was looked after by Disco before this.

 

[Cobblestones]

agreed. i still don't understand how this german law works. looks like freiburg doctors or any one under the investigation can stop it dead only if they can scrape enough to pay the court. sounds like a legal bribe to me.

No. IIRC it is a deal which can only be initiated by the prosecution. When the investigation is costly and the potential punishment is small (usually a fine), it's a reasonable way to free capacity of the police and the judicial system.

 

[DHSlammer]

Then technically so is Lance Armstrong

*hides*

But Lance has tested positive... TWICE.

 

[Mellow Velo]

So, now it's official. It's all gone away.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/kloden-german-prosecutors-agree-to-end-investigation


I find the German attitude incredibly hard to fathom.
On the face of it, they are the most anti-doping hard liners on the planet.
German tv cancels their national tour. All their media coverage pulled from the Tour, due to ongoing doping revelations surrounding the race.
Endless moral preaching in their press.

Yet, when it comes to dishing out justice to an implicated rider, it's a quick back hander to effectively turn a blind eye.

 

[craig1985]

And he is still considered innocent!

 

[Cobblestones]

So, now it's official. It's all gone away.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/kloden-german-prosecutors-agree-to-end-investigation


I find the German attitude incredibly hard to fathom.
On the face of it, they are the most anti-doping hard liners on the planet.
German tv cancels their national tour. All their media coverage pulled from the Tour, due to ongoing doping revelations surrounding the race.
Endless moral preaching in their press.

Yet, when it comes to dishing out justice to an implicated rider, it's a quick back hander to effectively turn a blind eye.

For the last time, this is the civil suit. It would have decided whether Kloden defrauded the T mobile team by taking PEDs. This suit was kind of a farce anyway, since most likely, doping was team sanctioned.

It is not the decision whether to ban Kloden or not. That lies with the Swiss Federation who issued Kloden's racing license. Don't blame the German's, blame the Swiss. They haven't gotten their a$$es in gear. I'm sure the Germans (unlike the Spanish in the case of the OP) would like to share their evidence with the Swiss if they'd bother to ask. Or, looking at it from a different angle: why do you think Kloden, Ullrich etc. were racing with a Swiss license, and not a German one?

 

[scribe]

Freebird forever.

 

[python]

For the last time, this is the civil suit. It would have decided whether Kloden defrauded the T mobile team by taking PEDs. This suit was kind of a farce anyway, since most likely, doping was team sanctioned.

It is not the decision whether to ban Kloden or not. That lies with the Swiss Federation who issued Kloden's racing license. Don't blame the German's, blame the Swiss. They haven't gotten their a$$es in gear. I'm sure the Germans (unlike the Spanish in the case of the OP) would like to share their evidence with the Swiss if they'd bother to ask. Or, looking at it from a different angle: why do you think Kloden, Ullrich etc. were racing with a Swiss license, and not a German one?

it's a valid point. i have not seen anywhere a clear statement as to what exactly the civil suit was about. if as you say doping was sanctioned by the "team" it would be important to know who was defrauded under the tag "team" in a legal sense - the team management or the corporate tmobile entity. i can see your point but if tmobile corporation pushed the defrauding card i don't see the case being dropped so easily. still, i trust it would be fairly easy to establish if kloeden attended the clinic and received the transfusion. there mustof been more parities to the affair than just sinkewitz.

 

[Cobblestones]

it's a valid point. i have not seen anywhere a clear statement as to what exactly the civil suit was about. if as you say doping was sanctioned by the "team" it would be important to know who was defrauded under the tag "team" in a legal sense - the team management or the corporate tmobile entity. i can see your point but if tmobile corporation pushed the defrauding card i don't see the case being dropped so easily. still, i trust it would be fairly easy to establish if kloeden attended the clinic and received the transfusion. there mustof been more parities to the affair than just sinkewitz.

It seems that T mobile was not interested in this suit. I think it was brought forward by a civil prosecutor, not the T mobile team. This might have been the reason it went the way it did. By the way, it's the same outcome as for Ullrich (although he might have paid ten times as much).

 

[Fourier]

I guess the right amount of money will buy you out of a suspension. He'll fit right in on The Shack.

 

[blackcat]

wonder how he feels being cuckolded into StrongArm's empire.

 

[sniper]

Freiburg back in the headlines and it's getting potentially interesting:
Evidence of widespread doping in cycling as well as doping in Bundesliga soccer (concerning clubs SC Freiburg and Vfb Stuttgart) is now surfacing in a new report.

https://de.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/fußball-dopingskandal-um-bundesligisten-142011804--sow.html

don't think the cycling-related evidence is going to be anything new, but the soccer revelations could be interesting, if not shoved under the carpet.