D'Hon't claims Pevenage knew of Ullrich doping
A former Deutsche Telekom soigneur says that the head of the German cycling team knew about Jan Ullrich’s use of EPO in the mid-1990s, according to a report slated for publication in Monday's edition of German weekly magazine Focus.

Former Telekom soigneur Jef d'Hont said Rudy Pevenage, the ex-boss of the team, was fully aware of the fact that the 1997 Tour de France winner had used the banned-blood booster. D’Hont, whose memoirs led to a string of high-profile doping confessions earlier this year, said Pevenage told him Ullrich used Erythropoietin (EPO) in 1996 "because everyone else was."

D'Hont is set to publish a second book early next year after his first book claimed he saw 1997 Tour winner Ullrich being injected with EPO.

Ullrich, 33, retired from cycling in February after he was sacked in July 2006 by T-Mobile, which had changed the name of the team from Deutsche Telekom in 2004.

None of d’Hont’s allegations involve the newly reorganized team, now headed by American telecommunications entrepreneur Bob Stapleton.

For his part, Ullrich has always denied doping even when several packets of his blood were found in the possession of Eufemiano Fuentes, the Spanish doctor whose doping network was dismantled by Operación Puerto last year.
Agence France Presse

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Ripon cycling team earns varsity status
Ripon College has announced it will offer cycling as a team sport formen and women beginning with competition in mountain biking next fall.The Red Hawk cycling team will compete at the Division 2 level as a memberof the Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference against colleges and universitiesfrom Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio.Ripon is the first college in Wisconsin to offer cycling as an officiallysanctioned part of its athletic program and is only one of a small numberof teams in the country to be given varsity status.Ripon has named Ric Damm as its first cycling coach. A competitive amateurcyclist, Damm brings more than 10 years of racing experience to the position.“Hopefully, I can transfer my experiences training and racing into supportfor our student-athletes who want to push themselves to new levels of competitionin a sport that they love,” said Damm, who is also Ripon College’s directorof publications and institutional image. “Cycling is a passion for me,and I plan to build this program with young men and women who share thatpassion.”More info at www.ripon.edu/athletics/cycling.

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