The Operación Grial investigation into an alleged doping ring centred on the Spanish city of Valencia is reported to have turned up evidence of doping within the Kelme team in 2003 and 2004.
According to Tuesday’s edition of Spanish sports daily AS, among the papers found during a search of a Valencia clinic run by ex-Kelme doctor Walter Virú were records of doping plans and treatments. AS indicates that some of the plans could have been drawn up for riders who are still competing.
AS claims that these plans are exactly the same as those that former Kelme rider Jesús Manzano showed to the Spanish cycling federation and police investigators back in 2004 when Manzano alleged systematic doping had taken place within that team.
At that time Manzano alleged that a variety of what appeared to be code words within the plans referred to use of Russian EPO, human growth hormone and nandrolone.
Spanish police searched 15 premises and arrested 12 people as part of Operación Grial, including Virú, his wife and two of his sons.
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Peter Cossins has written about professional cycling since 1993 and is a contributing editor to Procycling. He is the author of The Monuments: The Grit and the Glory of Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races (Bloomsbury, March 2014) and has translated Christophe Bassons' autobiography, A Clean Break (Bloomsbury, July 2014).
