Team Telekom says Ullrich
was not cheating
Top German cyclist Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner who has tested positive for an amphetamine, could not have been trying to boost his performance, his Team Telekom said on Thursday.
Ullrich tested positive while recovering from a knee operation at a rehabilitation clinic in Bad Wiesse, south of Munich.
"The problems with his knee meant he could neither train nor compete, so we can clearly rule out any attempt to enhance his performance," Team Telekom's spokesman Olaf Ludwig said after Wednesday's revelation.
Ullrich was reluctant to comment, according to German sports news agency SID .
"I cannot say anything on the matter as each word could be one too many," SID quoted Ullrich as saying.
Ullrich has until midnight on Friday to decide whether he wishes another examination, the B-test, to be conducted on a second sample. The results would be due at the end of July.
The news, which stunned a nation still celebrating Germany's bold soccer show at the World Cup finals, represents another big blow to the tarnished career of the 28-year-old German.
Ullrich had already pulled out of this year's Tour de France, due to start on Saturday, because of his knee operation on May 28.
DRINK-DRIVING
In June, a court banned the Telekom rider from driving for a year after a drink-driving incident in May. He was also fined.
Ullrich, who has come second three times in the Tour since his victory five years ago, knocked over a rack and some bikes with his Porsche outside a hotel in southern Germany in the early hours of May 1.
He fled the scene but was found to have had three times the permitted level of alcohol in his blood when driving.
Amphetamines are banned substances and classed by the IOC as stimulants. Ullrich would likely face several months suspension.
Bild newspaper wrote in a commentary: "The football world championships gave us new heroes but right in the middle of the celebrations... now this shock news."
"One of our biggest sporting heroes stands on the brink of disaster," it added.
In the last message posted to his fans on his web site, Ullrich had sounded upbeat after his operation, saying he was looking forward to resuming training.
"It's looking up," Ullrich wrote.
