July 6, 2006 – According to a report in cyclingnews today, Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes has spoken openly about his experience in cycling in an interview broadcast by Spanish radio, Cadena Ser.

His first claim was a defense of his own ethics, saying that he was not a criminal and that had the rider’s interests first and foremost.

“I’m don’t feel like a criminal; I haven’t killed anyone and I haven’t destroyed anyone’s health,” Fuentes said in the interview. “I’m a health professional; my priority is to cure my patients because I think that the sport at high level is not healthy. I’m accused of crime against public health, but they should sanction those who play at being doctors.” So instead of boosting the rider’s performances, Fuentes says that he only “supplemented and adjusted” those bodily functions of the riders which showed a deficit.

Fuentes continued, saying that he had also treated other forms of athletes – soccer, tennis, athletics – and said that although it was possible to ride the Tour de France without “medical” help, it was not possible to do so at the current speeds. “You just can’t ride four of these mountain stages successively at that speed, it’s very harmful,” he concluded.