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Dope scandal: Cyclists filmed
25/05/2006 17:56 - (SA)
Madrid - Police probing a drug scandal in Spanish cycling found lists with the names of more than 100 top-level athletes who allegedly used the services of doctors offering doping procedures, authorities said on Thursday.
Civil Guard spokesperson Jose Manuel Gallego would not confirm or deny a report in the newspaper El Pais that the names of elite foreign cyclists - not just Spaniards - were on the lists. Five people were arrested in this week's raids.
Police also filmed athletes arriving at a Madrid apartment building apparently to have blood extracted for doping purposes or to pick up performance-enhancing drugs.
"They are high-level athletes. The lesser ones don't do this because it is expensive," Gallego told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, adding the probe continues and more arrests are possible.
Police seized large amounts of steroids, hormones and the endurance-boosting substance EPO, as well as 100 bags of frozen blood and equipment for treating blood, the Civil Guard said in a statement. They also found documents on doping procedures performed on cyclists, it said.
The detainees picked up on Tuesday include Manolo Saiz, a major figure in Spanish cycling and director of the Liberty Seguros team. He was questioned by the Civil Guard on Wednesday and released but must still go before a judge.
Sports physicians
Liberty Seguros announced on Thursday it is ending its sponsorship of the team, saying the arrest of Saiz hurts "our name and the name of cycling."
Also arrested were sports physicians Eufemiano Fuentes and Jose Merino Batres; the deputy director of the Comunidad Valenciana cycling team, Jose Ignacio Labarta, and former mountain bike racer Alberto Leon Herranz. They are still in custody and will also go before a judge.
The investigation began in February. Police acting with a court order set up a secret camera at the door of a Madrid apartment building where athletes showed up for treatment, Gallego said.
Blood doping is a procedure in which blood is extracted from an athlete, centrifuged to extract a concentration of oxygen-rich red blood cells and then injected back into the athlete before competition to boost performance.
The case is the last in a series of trouble for Liberty Seguros.
In February, Roberto Heras was banned for two years after testing positive for EPO at last year's Spanish Vuelta, which he won, and stripped of his title. He was eventually fired from the team. The rider has always insisted that he is innocent and attributed the positive test to an error.
Before he managed Liberty Seguros, Saiz directed the Spanish cycling team ONCE.
- AP
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