In the following press release team Quick-Step responds to the doping accusations of former team member Patrik Sinkewitz. In the release they deny any wrong doing, and question the timing of the statements.
PRESS RELEASE
After having seen the defamatory television program Frontal 21, broadcast on German television channel ZDF yesterday evening, Tuesday June 30th 2009, team QUICK STEP announces:
that it absolutely contests the false and defamatory content that was aired;
the team will launch appropriate legal actions with the appropriate courts to protect its image and rights.
“It’s obvious,” said team manager Patrick Lefevere, “that the false statements regarding the team that were broadcast on the Frontal 21 program were suspiciously used only a few hours before the start of the one of the most important cycling event such the Tour de France, and only a few days before an important point in proceedings in the slander case between the ex-world champion and former Quick-Step rider Paolo Bettini and the ZDF for the well noted events at Stuttgart 2007.”
The team is shocked that a television network that claims to present fair and balanced information could broadcast such outrageously false statements in such unserious manner.