Skibby book reveals cycling’s darker side
In his 15 years as a professional cyclist from 1986 to 2000 Denmark’s Jesper Skibby was one of the peloton’s most respected riders. He was a hard worker who used long breakaways to earn stage wins at the Giro d’Italia (1989), Vuelta a España (1991) and Tour de France (1993). That’s why the revelations in his autobiography “Skibby: Forstaa Mig Ret” (“Skibby: Understand Me Correctly”), to be published in Denmark on Wednesday, are so shocking.

The book’s publisher Ekstra Bladets Forlag said on its Web site, “Jesper Skibby admits openly and honestly that, yes, he was doped during in his long years as a professional cyclist. EPO, cortisone and human growth hormone were the big secrets of his daily life.”

In his book, Skibby writes, “The effect [of the drugs] was almost immediate. On the bike I had a huge reserve of strength and I felt stronger than ever.”

“I lived with these lies for many years,” Skibby told a press conference in Copenhagen on Monday. “I always spoke [to the media] a lot, but I never told [them] the truth.”

Despite the depth of his confessions, Skibby remains true to his character in the book by not mentioning the names any other riders who doped. Skibby says that he started using cortisone in 1991, growth hormone in 1992 and EPO in 1993.

The tall Dane, now 42, was a member of the Dutch team TVM from 1991 to 1997. A year after he left the team, TVM was busted for EPO use at the 1998 Tour de France.

Most cycling fans remember Skibby best for being the rider, then with the Belgian team Roland, who fell on the Koppenberg when leading the 1987 Tour of Flanders and had his bike run over by the organizer’s car that was following him.
John Wilcockson
Editorial director

LeMond calls for strict doping penalties
Three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond wants athletes who cheat by using banned drugs to face criminal charges for defrauding the public and their sponsors.

LeMond also told the World Anti-Doping Agency that athletes who confess or come forward with information that could undo doping networks should receive more lenient punishment, balancing the benefit of people coming clean with the need to penalize cheaters.

“I believe in severe penalties, possibly even life bans. But you can't penalize everybody, or no one will come forward,” said LeMond, adding that athletes who cooperate should get a second chance, but under a probationary period of intense scrutiny.

The American cyclist made the remarks in Montreal on Monday as a guest of WADA's Foundation board, at a time when the doping agency is considering tougher sanctions for athletes found guilty of doping.

As WADA reviews its global anti-doping code, which sets out common rules and sanctions for all sports, the International Association of Athletics Federations has proposed doubling the standard penalty for a doping violation from a two-year to four-year suspension.

Athletes want strong sanctions, WADA executive committee and athlete committee member Rania Elwani reminded the board.

“Athletes are responsible to make sure they get nothing wrong in their system,” she said.

LeMond said doping was one of the reasons he left the sport “with a bad taste in my mouth.” At the time, he assumed his declining rankings were a result of his failure to compete or train sufficiently. Now, he believes the development of drug programs — EPO in particular — were responsible.

“EPO was used to transform decent athletes into super-athletes,” he said.

In other business Monday, WADA unanimously elected Jean-Francois Lamour as its new vice president, one year before Dick Pound is expected to step down as the leader of the agency. Lamour, nominated by European ministers last month, was the only candidate and is in a leading position to replace Pound.

“One of my priorities is to look at our ability to reinforce the battle against the trafficking of doping products,” Lamour said.

The board also approved a $23 million budget for 2007, an increase of three percent over this year.
The Associated Press

German athletics federation files charges
The German athletics federation has filed a criminal complaint against high-profile Dutch agent Jos Hermens and a Spanish doctor connected to doping allegations.

Doctor Miguel Anguel Peraita and Hermens, whose clients have included Ethiopian long-distance greats Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele, are accused of trafficking banned substances.

The federation said Monday in a press release that its case was built on court documents from the trial of German coach Thomas Springstein, convicted of providing banned substances to minors.

“We can't say anything about the details of the case because we have filed a criminal complaint,” federation spokesman Peter Schmitt told The Associated Press about the case given to state prosecutors.

Hermens has not returned calls or e-mails from the AP.

Schmitt said the federation received the court documents on Springstein on Friday, leading to Monday's actions.

“The DLV doesn't just talk about zero tolerance in the fight against doping, we practice it,” federation president Clemens Prokop said. “Doping has reached such a degree of organization it can now only be fought by a cooperative effort from sport and government.

Peraita has been linked to the Madrid clinic at the heart of a Spanish investigation into doping in cycling.

That case led to prerace favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso being barred from this year's Tour de France, although neither has been charged with using banned substances.

The Magdeburg district attorney's office, which will investigate the Peraita and Hermens cases, was not available to comment.

The court documents also led the DLV to investigate alleged irregularities by two top German runners, former Olympic 800-meter champion Nils Schumann and former world relay champion Grit Breuer.

Both have seven days to answer questions that surfaced in Springstein's trial. The former coach of Schumann and Breuer's partner, he was handed a 16-month jail sentence last March for giving performance-enhancing drugs to minors.

Neither runner apparently is being directly accused of doping.

“There are very clear rules that if there is the barest hint of violations we have to take action,” Schmitt said.
The Associated Press