Jens Voigt has said he would support a UCI-wide DNA data bank which could be used for comparison purposes in future doping cases. "What might really help would be when we said: listen, on January 1, 2007, we're going to take a hair and blood sample from everyone. Every rider who has a license has to submit his genetic fingerprint. And these will be kept for 10 years -- and when there's a question, like with this Spanish affair, then a comparison will be made."
Voigt addressed the Operation Puerto doping scandal in an interview with the German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung. He noted that he is not immune from doping rumors. When he doesn't ride well or when he rides well, or even the fact that he rides the complete season -- everything creates rumors. "And all I do is train very hard, I know what I'm doing, and my wife Steffi would knock my head off if I did that kind of shit."
Is he angry at his colleagues? "Yes, sure, that makes me sick! My wife is worried every day when she brings the kids to school, that somebody is going to say something dumb to her. And it really irritates me: I, who have absolutely nothing to do with any of this and who is totally innocent, have to talk about it -- and those who have brought all this crap down on us, are hiding."
Voigt admits that the newest scandal caught him by surprise. "I really thought that things had gotten better since the 1998 scandal. I really thought that they had cut out the cancer. But now it's the same or even bigger: different teams, more nationalities and different sports."
Would he support bans forbidding riders from working with certain doctors? "Well, you'd have to write the [riders'] contracts more carefully. You could just say: If you work with him -- you're out! That kind of provision would make sense. But officially these sports doctors say that they only advise on training. How can you make something bad out of that?"
