Jaksche: "Everybody dopes"

The 30-year-old German was one of 56 riders implicated in the Operacion Puerto scandal that broke on the eve of last year's Tour de France. He has admitted his involvement, revealing that three 0.5 litre bags of blood labelled "Bella" - the name of his Labrador who died three years ago - and "number 20" were his.

With this year's race just one week away, he has once again brought doping back into the headlines with allegations against team managers and the UCI.

"It's strange, but the doping system is fair because everybody is doing it. Cycling without the use of doping is only fair if nobody at all is doing it," he told German magazine Spiegel.

Jaksche admitted using the blood-booster EPO for the first time before the Tour de Suisse in 1997, and claims it was given to him by his manager in the Polti team, Gianluigi Stanga, now in charge at Milram:

"Stanga said he wanted to start my treatment now. He wanted to find out what affects me. By that he meant: We will show you how the sport of cycling works. It was my crash course. An aide injected EPO into me in the evenings in my room," Jaksche explained, adding that he also used other products including Medrol and Synacthen.

Stanga refuted the allegations, calling them "absurd."

Two years later, he moved onto the Telekom team, and linked up with Erik Zabel and Rolf Aldag, both of whom have since admitted the use of EPO while in the team. The team was then run by Walter Godefroot, now manager at Astana.

"The [Telekom] team leadership knew everything. It was a firmly installed system.

"Godefroot didn't want to stop anybody from doping, but didn't want them doing it unsurreptitiously," he said, adding that the Belgian was not keen on keeping him after he rode clean at the 1999 Tour de France.

"Of course nobody forced my arm, but the team bosses who got rich off us and who obtained the stuff for us are now the ones giving off the impression that they are working towards cleaning up cycling," he added.

Godefroot has denied any knowledge of doping.

In 1999 Jaksche stopped using banned substances, though soon found himself "unable to keep up anywhere."

After leaving Telekom, he switched to the Spanish Once outfit, run by Manolo Saiz, where he was "completely in the hands of the doctors." He even admits not even knowing what he was being given:

"I just held out my arm and let the injections happen. It's quite possible that they gave everything going for the full three years."

In 2004 he moved teams again, this time to CSC, run by Bjarne Riis, who himself recently admitted the use of EPO during his time at Team Telekom.

While skiing, Riis is said to have spoken with Jaksche about "things riders can do to improve performance," though the German also insisted Riis was "in a dilemma, torn between the vision of drug-free sport, and the knowledge that [remaining competitive] is not possible without doping."

Due to the more stringent drug tests, Jaksche said EPO was taken only "sporadically," though cortisone was used "practically throughout the whole season."

After just one season with the Danish outfit, Jaksche rejoined Saiz at Liberty Seguros. It was then, at the beginning of 2005, that he was introduced to Fuentes on Gran Canaria.

Though Jaksche describes Fuentes as "a master of camouflage," he found the blood doping system the doctor used to be problematic.

"It was like a constant change of oil. It didn't work so well with me in the beginning, as the infusions and extractions exhausted me."

The method of doping limited him to a few Spring classics and the Tour [de France], though he paid Fuentes 30 000 euros for the entire program of treatment.

Nevertheless, Jaksche insists the fact that doping was so widespread in the peloton meant he did not feel he was deceiving anybody.

"It wasn't as if I had an atom bomb and the others were still fighting with machetes."

Jaksche has declared himself willing to work with the UCI to get to the bottom of doping in cycling and help clean up the sport, though he shelved some of the blame for the situation getting out of hand onto the governing body itself, saying he has been informed that deals take place between the UCI and certain teams over tests in training.

Jaksche justified his statements insisting: "I believe that it's important for the future of the sport that somebody says: Okay, this is how things happen here."

He is hoping through his admission to have his mandatory two-year ban reduced to a one-year ban, and to resume his career in 2008.

Eurosport & SID