A report into doping in Danish cycling from 1998-2015 found evidence that team officials Bjarne Riis (pictured), Johnny Weltz and Alex Pedersen and ‘a number of Danish former riders’ breached anti-doping rules, however action cannot be taken due to the statute of limitations, which sets a time limit for sanctions based on past offences. However, Anti-Doping Denmark (ADD), which compiled the report, said that the offences were of a significant nature and had it not been for the statute of limitations, it would have been able to bring forward cases against those concerned.

‘The information received during this investigation about the team’s former owner and leading sports director Bjarne Riis would have constituted grounds to bring forward a doping case before the Danish Doping Tribunal against Bjarne Riis for violation of anti- doping regulations in force at the time of each of the alleged violations – in particular the applicable rule about assisting anti-doping rule violations (The current rule is the 2015 WADA Code’s article 2.9 about Complicity)’, read an Executive Summary of the report. ‘This assessment is, among other things, based on the fact that Bjarne Riis has admitted that he, as team owner and leading sports director during the period when Tyler Hamilton was employed by Team CSC, had knowledge about the fact that Tyler Hamilton was using doctor Eufemiano Fuentes for blood doping and did not take action to stop it. Additionally, Riis has admitted that in his own career as a rider, he has used blood doping and hereby has personal knowledge about blood doping practices.’

Former professional cyclist Riis is the former founder, owner and manager of the Tinkoff-Saxo team, which was formerly known as Team CSC. He left in March this year. “The bottom line unfortunately is that the conclusion of the reports is correct”,  There is no doubt about that. I have not lived up to my responsibility,” Riis said in a statement provided to AAP. “When I then had a feeling that a rider was heading in the wrong direction, I was not always quick enough to indicate that (the rider’s) behaviour was not acceptable.”

Weltz is a former professional cyclist who now works for Team Slipstream (Cannondale/Garmin). Pedersen is a former professional cyclist who worked as Sporting Director of the Tinkoff-Saxo team until 2003 and is also understood to have worked for Team Designa Køkken-Bluewater (ColoQuick).

The report also found that a ‘comprehensive use of cortisone without medical justification’ also occurred at Team CSC, which is now known as Team Saxo Tinkoff; and that Riis requested that Bo Hamburger provide erythropoietin (EPO) to Jörg Jaksche. It also found that Weltz and Pedersen ‘accepted the use of doping’, adding that all three team officials would have faced action for complicity under Article 2.9 of the World Anti-Doping Code.

After the release of the report last week, Tinkoff-Saxo’s coach and Sporting Director, Nicki Sørensen, admitted having doped in his early career. ‘Nicki Sørensen informed the management of Tinkoff-Saxo at the time he spoke to Anti Doping Danmark (ADD) in 2013’, read a team statement. ‘Sørensen advised Tinkoff-Saxo that the matters he talked about with ADD were related to before 2004 and he expressed his deep regret that they had occurred. Tinkoff-Saxo accepted that these were matters to be privately resolved between ADD and Sørensen […] Tinkoff-Saxo was convinced at the time and remains of the view that Sørensen has conducted himself fully in accordance with this culture over the past decade of working with the team.’

The report interviewed 50 people connected to Danish cycling from 1998 onwards, involving 100 hours of interviews with 11 riders, 15 former riders and 24 leaders and support personnel. Five people declined to participate. The full 96-page report, in Danish, is available here.