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Salzwedel

Oct 16, 2010
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this is one dodgy guy.
pivotal to the rise of Australian and British (track) cycling.

Dear Wiggo said:
sniper said:
Heiko Salzwedel is an interesting person.
From East Germany to Australia.
Wonder what kind of 'knowledge' he brought along with him.
Anybody know more about that guy and his role in Australian cycling?

In 2012 he founded the Russian professional cycling team RusVelo.[5] RusVelo is Professional Continental Cycling team with main focus on the track events and the Olympic Games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heiko_Salzwedel

Updated: July 13, 2013 5:21am
The Russian RusVelo team is under pressure to serve a period of self suspension after it confirmed that three riders had tested positive for the asthma medication Fenoterol.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rusvelo-face-four-week-suspension-after-three-positives-for-asthma-drug

http://www.dopeology.org/teams/RusVelo/

Does not appear on the RusVelo team page on dopeology for some reason (?)
 
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From Matt White wiki
Turning professional in 1996 at age 22 with the Giant-Australian Institute of Sport team under the GIANT-A.I.S. Sports Director and Australian National Coach, German born Heiko Salzwedel. During this period the team's European headquarters were based in Cottbus, Germany.
 
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from Salzwedel wiki:
"After moving from his native East Germany to Australia in 1990, he set up the Australian Institute of Sport Road Cycling/MTB programme in Canberra. [1] World class riders, such as Robbie McEwen, Cadel Evans, Patrick Jonker, Henk Vogels, Matt White, Nick Gates and Kathy Watt, emerged from this programme."
 
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He's also the man behind Cavendish, bringing him into the T-Mobile development team.
Here's Salzwedel in 2007 explaining why he went to Britain in search of talent:
I have never given up hope of clean cycling. In this respect one can perhaps call me naive optimists. I have always taught my drivers that it also goes without doping and have spoken openly to them about it. I try to give them psychological stability, the self-confidence that it can be done without doping. I have the hope of a new generation of drivers who grows up in a "drug-free environment." Looking for drivers for the T-Mobile-Development Program I also particularly looked around in the UK because I knew from my own experience that the environment is "clean" there.

When asked why he never went on to coach a pro-team but rather kept working for national federations:
The work with the national associations of different countries appeared to me the fairest. My key experience I had when I emigrated in 1990 after Australia and me the local Institute of Sport underwent a "screening". I was interrogated and downright investigated on my work as a trainer in the former GDR.
no doubt they screened him, and realized he will bring exactly the kind of 'know how' they were looking for.

he also says you can win the tour clean, and speak of the importance of nutrition.
all in all very much sounds like a cleans-cycling pioneer. All the british cycling talking points are there.
http://www.radsport-news.com/sport/sportnews_43685.htm
 
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bit more background:
Salzwedel, 57, has just embarked on his third tour of duty at British Cycling, having first worked thereunder Peter Keen from 2000‑02 – he notes that when he first arrived at the Manchester velodrome the surroundings were worse than in his old home country, East Germany – and then returned under Dave Brailsford between 2008-10. In between times he has achieved notable improvements with three nations, Denmark, Russia and Switzerland.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/dec/08/heiko-salzwedel-british-cycling-rio-2016-olympics
 
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The GIANT-A.I.S. - Cottbus link sounds dodgy as w(/h)ell.
There was a lot of doping going on in Cottbus in the late 80s and 90s, and, if i'm not mistaken, several of T-Mobile guys (at least Kloeden and Hondo) were either based in Cottbus or had previously ridden for RSC Cottbus cycling club.
Or take the case of Olaf Pollack: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaf_Pollack
 
Re:

sniper said:
indeed.
he wasn't just a bystander at RusVelo.
"RusVelo: Re-building the Salzwedel way
Coaching maestro on the plan to make Russia a cycling powerhouse by 2016"
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/rusvelo-re-building-the-salzwedel-way
RusVelo...

2012 Firsanov:
graphRiderHistory.asp


He was superb throughout the month of May, starting at Frankfurt. This result in particular stands out; though Firsanov and Belda were in the break, he lost almost no time at all to the Movistar & Euskaltel combined forces on the final climb). A couple of weeks later he was top 5 in the Tour of Norway and the Ronde van België. I'd rather forgotten about him, but it seems rather noticeable in view of the above.
 
Mar 13, 2009
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Re:

MellowJohnny said:
Must admit heard a lot about him, but its not since I've put the dots together how bad it potential looks for the Australian, Brits and Russians that he's worked with.

Oh Dear.
Denmark track team of 2012? or 2008, i think it was 2012, but could been the 2008 iteration.
 
He's certainly a hired gun for a few of the big countries, thing is did he use his inside knowledge to beat the cheats?

Its possible that riders who trained also used difference methods even if he was unsound?

Or am I still just living in 'its not about the bike' paradise
 
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Re:

sniper said:
He's also the man behind Cavendish, bringing him into the T-Mobile development team.
Here's Salzwedel in 2007 explaining why he went to Britain in search of talent:
I have never given up hope of clean cycling. In this respect one can perhaps call me naive optimists. I have always taught my drivers that it also goes without doping and have spoken openly to them about it. I try to give them psychological stability, the self-confidence that it can be done without doping. I have the hope of a new generation of drivers who grows up in a "drug-free environment." Looking for drivers for the T-Mobile-Development Program I also particularly looked around in the UK because I knew from my own experience that the environment is "clean" there.

When asked why he never went on to coach a pro-team but rather kept working for national federations:
The work with the national associations of different countries appeared to me the fairest. My key experience I had when I emigrated in 1990 after Australia and me the local Institute of Sport underwent a "screening". I was interrogated and downright investigated on my work as a trainer in the former GDR.
also says you can win the tour clean, and speak of the importance of nutrition.
all in all very much sounds like a cleans-cycling pioneer. All the british cycling talking points are there.
http://www.radsport-news.com/sport/sportnews_43685.htm

forgot the T-Mobile or Telekom team, there were two big espoir teams in Germany last decade, one was Thuringer Energie, and the other I cant remember, but it is a white grey jersey with Red logo writing, or was this Thuringer? I dont think so. Tony Martin came out of one of them. And Heiko coached the Telekom feeder. But Ullrich has a team with his name plastered over them too, or where Schumacher came from. his old man must have been an American soldier based in germany.

And Gerdemann came out of a team from Koln called Akud, (forget the sponsor the year before or after)... Winfix. Winfix. That was from Cologne i think.

Heiko? what about Heiko, yeah, Ed Clancy also rode with Cav and Heiko.

think Heiko just coaches the pedals. The other stuff, Freiberg or Freiburg and doctors and transfusions. Not Heikos remit.
 
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Re: Re:

blackcat said:
...
think Heiko just coaches the pedals. The other stuff, Freiberg or Freiburg and doctors and transfusions. Not Heikos remit.
Freiburg? Cottbus had its own medical centres in the 90s. No need to travel to Freiburg.

In a 1997 inquiry about doping in the DDR, Birgit Uibel (DDR-hurdle athlete from Cottbus, one of the acknowledged DDR-doping victims, she sadly died in 2010 at age 48) answered under oath:
"As far as my medical guidance is concerned, I can mention Doctor Bodo Krocker, who still has a praxis in Cottbus today."
http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/raetselhafter-tod-mit-48.1346.de.html?dram:article_id=195471

see also:
http://www.lr-online.de/nachrichten/Tagesthemen-Cottbuser-Sportmediziner-spielte-in-der-DDR-wichtige-Rolle-beim-Doping-von-Lausitzer-Sportlern;art1065,2958732

Not saying Salzwedel was the guy with the needle. Neither were Riis or Bruyneel.
In any case, Salzwedel grew up in the Cottbus sports scene of the 70s and 80s characterized by DDR doping structures. You really gotta wonder why he brought the GIANT-AIS squad to Cottbus in the early 90s.
 
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Salzwedel was 4 times national DDR youth/junior champion in the 70s, a period when we know youth athletes in particular got geared to the eyeballs.
In this article (I also linked it above) he claims never to have seen any doping, because he 'wasn't good enough'. :rolleyes:
In terms of results, I never got into this higher circle. Ok, I was national team rider, but I was too young. I quit cycling when I was 22
http://www.radsport-news.com/sport/sportnews_43685.htm

Some of you might still remember Gerd Audehm? Took part in the TdF of 93 and 94 as member of Team Telekom.
In 2000, Audehm, then only 32 years old, almost dies of a heart attack. He survives but has lost his memory. The doctors believe his former PED-abuse was the chief cause of the heart attack. He started his carreer in the 80s as a youngster at the "Kinder- und Jugendsportschule, ein DDR-Sportinternat", indeed, in Cottbus, where according to this article doping was "widespread and obligatory"
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wissen/medizin/doping-im-radsport-ein-sport-geht-ueber-leichen-11010406-p4.html
Salzwedel was DDR national track cycling coach in 1989, when all the old-school doping structures were still in place.
 
Re: Re:

blackcat said:
forgot the T-Mobile or Telekom team, there were two big espoir teams in Germany last decade, one was Thuringer Energie, and the other I cant remember, but it is a white grey jersey with Red logo writing, or was this Thuringer? I dont think so. Tony Martin came out of one of them. And Heiko coached the Telekom feeder. But Ullrich has a team with his name plastered over them too, or where Schumacher came from. his old man must have been an American soldier based in germany.

And Gerdemann came out of a team from Koln called Akud, (forget the sponsor the year before or after)... Winfix. Winfix. That was from Cologne i think.

Heiko? what about Heiko, yeah, Ed Clancy also rode with Cav and Heiko.

think Heiko just coaches the pedals. The other stuff, Freiberg or Freiburg and doctors and transfusions. Not Heikos remit.
The other team is Sparkasse, who Cav rode for:

Mark_Cavendish.jpg


They weren't really an espoir team in the same way as Thüringer Energie Team are, or perhaps now Stölting or LKT Brandenburg; they had some older riders as well. They became Nutrixxion a couple of years later, with Steffen Radochla well into his 30s getting results in the Central European calendar for them.
 
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Re: Re:

Libertine Seguros said:
The other team is Sparkasse, who Cav rode for:

Mark_Cavendish.jpg


They weren't really an espoir team in the same way as Thüringer Energie Team are, or perhaps now Stölting or LKT Brandenburg; they had some older riders as well. They became Nutrixxion a couple of years later, with Steffen Radochla well into his 30s getting results in the Central European calendar for them.

i knew i could rely on my mid-early 2000s cycling walking talking google Libertine Seguros to bring it. ta!

I think that pic is the cycling archives pic with Cav's potbelly and jew-fro.
 
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sniper said:
Some of you might still remember Gerd Audehm? Took part in the TdF of 93 and 94 as member of Team Telekom.
In 2000, Audehm, then only 32 years old, almost dies of a heart attack. He survives but has lost his memory. The doctors believe his former PED-abuse was the chief cause of the heart attack. He started his carreer in the 80s as a youngster at the "Kinder- und Jugendsportschule, ein DDR-Sportinternat", indeed, in Cottbus, where according to this article doping was "widespread and obligatory"
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wissen/medizin/doping-im-radsport-ein-sport-geht-ueber-leichen-11010406-p4.html
Salzwedel was DDR national track cycling coach in 1989, when all the old-school doping structures were still in place.
Good post, Gerd is still a mystery.
http://hetiskoers.nl/vergeten-wielrenner-audehm-gerd/http://www.dewielersite.net/db2/wielersite/ritfiche.php?ritid=170613


When did Heiko leave the DDR?
 
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cheers.

from Salzwedel's Wiki:

After moving from his native East Germany to Australia in 1990, he set up the Australian Institute of Sport Road Cycling/MTB programme in Canberra. World class riders, such as Robbie McEwen, Cadel Evans, Patrick Jonker, Henk Vogels, Matt White, Nick Gates and Kathy Watt, emerged from this programme.

In 1996, as a part of the campaign to include professional riders and races in the preparation towards the Sydney Olympics 2000, he was creating the first UCI registered Australian Trade Team: the GIANT-Australian Institute of Sport Cycling Team (GIANT-AIS; later: ZVVZ-GIANT-AIS).
 

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