Controversial Dane insists he’s helped the sport
Providing further details of his doping use via his new autobiography has inevitably led to some criticism of Bjarne Riis within the media, particularly about his unwillingness to name names or to accept what he did was wrong. However the Dane has insisted that he has made an important anti-doping contribution in recent years.
“After Operación Puerto and the resignation of Ivan Basso from the team in 2006, it was myself and Team CSC who took action with measures against doping, “said Riis, referring to the internal inspections he and Danish scientist Rasmus Damsgaard set up.
“I can tell you that I too have paid a total of one million euros or roughly 7.5 million kroner on the anti-doping fight. It’s been about 600,000 euros out of my own pocket for our anti-doping system. In recent years, I have also paid 400,000 euros to the UCI’s anti-doping program which, incidentally, has copied the system that we launched at Team CSC with their biological passport. So I have contributed a little,” he told Sporten.dk in recent days.
Riis’ reinvention of himself in the role of anti-doping crusader might not be embraced by all, given his own history and also the fact that in the early to mid-2000s, he used the controversial doctor Luigi Cecchini as his team’s trainer. Cecchini has been accused in the past of doping riders, something he denies, and is also said to have had links to Eufemiano Fuentes.
Fuentes is the Spanish doctor who was at the centre of the Operación Puerto case , which involved Jan Ullrich, former CSC rider Basso and others. Their involvement led to their suspension from the sport.
Riis recently published his autobiography and elaborated on his previous confession that he had used doping substances to win the 1996 Tour de France. He states that he took banned products for much of his career, spending between €65,000 and €130,000, but insists that he has no regrets. His contention is that he didn’t defraud anyone as he claims the other riders of the time also took EPO and other substances.
Riis has been faulted for this lack of remorse, and also the fact that he won’t reveal who gave him the substances in question. He has made it clear that he won’t elaborate on how it took place. “I do what I think is right,” he said. “And for me it makes no sense to specify the people who may no longer play any role in cycling.”