Bjarne Riis has spoken for the first time since an Anti-Doping Denmark report said that he was complicit in the use of doping at Team CSC, knew that Tyler Hamilton was blood doping with Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes and even blood doped himself during his career.
Riis admitted that “my credibility is not very high, and I am well aware of that,” during a brief extract of an interview with Danish television channel TV2. Riis was team manager at Tinkoff-Saxo until March this year, working closely with team leaders Alberto Contador and Peter Sagan. He sold the team to Oleg Tinkov in late 2013 for a reported €6 million, but agreed to leave in March after Tinkov was unhappy with Riis' work.
The 96-page Anti-Doping Denmark report came after a two-year investigation and interviews with 50 former or current riders. It concluded that Riis, directeur sportif Johnny Weltz (now a directeur sportif at Cannondale-Garmin), former Riis Cycling managing director Alex Pedersen and a number of Danish former riders all violated anti-doping rules. However due to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s eight-year statute of limitation rule in force at the time, none will face disciplinary action.
Riis had always denied Hamilton’s claims that he helped him dope when the two worked together at Team CSC and attempted to win the Tour de France. However ADD believed key testimony from the American and from former teammates Michael Rasmussen, Jörg Jaksche and other un-named riders.
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Riis spoke to ADD during the investigation and confessed to blood doping, confirming he had personal knowledge about blood doping practices. It also emerged that he had requested that Danish rider Bo Hamburger provide EPO to Jaksche and that there was a comprehensive use of cortisone without medical justification at Team CSC.
"There are some things in it (the report) which I do not agree with, but I’m not here to elaborate on them. Basically their conclusion is that I have failed as a leader. I confirm that and I regret that deeply,” Riis said.
Riis claimed he had tried to somehow correct his mistakes of the past.
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