By Susan Westemeyer
Jan Ullrich has denied a report that his attorneys recently applied to a Spanish court to block the transfer of blood bags taken into custody during Operación Puerto to Germany for DNA comparisons. Instead, he announced, his attorneys first filed suit in Spain at the end of last year.
In a statement published on Ullrich's website, his attorney Dr. Ulrich Theune said, "The reasons for this are obvious. The use of the investigation against the Spanish doctor for other purposes is a scandalous arbitrary decision by the investigators. The reports of the Guardia Civil contain a colourful mixture of unfounded claims, conjectures and suspicions. They are illegally constructed, illegally disseminated, and purposely falsely interpreted. For these reasons, there are currently in Spain several court proceedings against leading figures of the Guardia Civil, especially because of the falsification of evidence."
At the same time, rumours of Ullrich signing with Team Volksbank still persist. Thomas Kofler of Team Volksbank confirmed to Cyclingnews Friday morning that he is contact with Ullrich regarding a possible contract. "So far nothing has been signed," he emphasized. "We're still waiting. We don't want to rush into anything. After Monday's press conference we will know more."
Kofler confirmed that he had spoken to Ullrich in the last few days, and will be in touch with him over the weekend. Kofler was planning to spend much of Friday in meetings with various sponsors, trying to work things out. "Things look good," he said.
