Dopage - 24 January 2007
Anonymous Source in Belgium Charges Escape by Bribing Anti-doping officials. Lotto/Predictor response to "nameless witness" and hopes for honest competitors. Musseuw admits doping in latter part of his career, resigns from Quickstep. Oscar Pereiro Cleared of Charge.

The Belgian news paper Het Laatste Nieuws has published reports from an anonymous source regarding  ProTour Team Quickstep/Innergetic. This mornings edition claimed a team member said that riders blood dope and use performance enhancing drugs but escape by bribing anti-doping officials.

Claims by the anonymous source included, "...you have the riders who only have to ride a short 100 kilometres races these riders don't take anything. You have the riders who have to perform a little longer, these get something extra on occasion; finally, you have the top and these are the riders who get the big stuff."

Team Predictor/Lotto Responds:
Hopes for honest competitors
he recent assertions in the media are unfortunately negative for the general image of the whole cyclist sport. As they almost come from nameless witnesses, they are also mostly rejected by the defendants. We therefore wish that the complete truth about this matter will come without delay to the light. We also hope that the rights of the defendants will be fully respected. In a constitutional state, anyone – also in the sport's world – should be insured of this right.

Predictor-Lotto will always aim at a clean future for the cycling sport in general, and especially for the Belgian cyclist sport. Our team includes several young talented racers, who deserve a correct entourage in their career. We are now looking forward to the Spring Classics, with the hope that our racers will meet honest competitors.

Johan Musseuw admits to doping at the end of his career
To retire from Quickstep Position
Retired Belgian classics champion Johan Museeuw has admitted to taking drugs to enhance his performance towards the end of his career.

"At the end of my career, to prepare a number of races, I made a mistake. I wanted to end my career in beauty and did things that I couldn't," Museeuw told a news conference on Tuesday.

Museeuw, a former world champion and three-times winner of the famous Paris-Roubaix race, said he would quit his current position with the Quick Step team.

IOC James Rogge Welcomes Admission
Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, said Wednesday that he welcomed an admission by the former cycling world champion Johan Museeuw that he resorted to doping during the last year of his career.

"If he admits, that is an intelligent thing to do and definitely that is a wise thing that he has done," Rogge said during an anti-doping symposium in Lausanne.

UCI Clears Oscar Pereiro of Salbutamol Charge
Existing TUE for Asthma medication acknowledged
UCI statement: “At the 2006 Tour de France, traces of this product were found in his urine, However the results of tests during the race cannot be considered as a positive anti-doping control.”

The release went on to say, “Although he had medical justification requested from September 2006 by the AFLD proving that he indeed suffered from asthma brought on by physical exertion, Oscar Pereiro delayed providing it to this organization, This is considered as a failure to respect established administrative procedures. This serious negligence by the Spanish rider is regrettable and harms the image of cycling as a whole, although he is not guilty of any infringement.”

French daily Le Monde reported last week that Pereiro had twice tested positive for salbutamol during the Tour. Pereiro told Radio Marca last Thursday he had had an official medical exemption since March 2005. The UCI said it asked the AFLD to refrain from publicly implying that a rider was guilty of a doping offence when he had committed an administrative fault only