August 18, 2006 – According to a recent AFP report, the German daily, Süddeutsche Zeitung, claims that Jan Ullrich’s name is on a fax sent by Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, who is at the centre of the doping network recently cracked by Spanish police in Operacion Puerto. Previously Ullrich was implicated through references to “JAN” or “the son of Rudicio,” which allegedly refer to Ullrich’s mentor, Rudy Pevanage.

The hand-written fax signed by Fuentes was sent to Nelson Giraldo Flores who managed the Avianca Telecom team with Vicente Belda, the director the Communauté de Valence team which was banned from participating at the Tour de France and the Tour of Spain. The fax refers to “the list of collaborators and participants at the May festival,” perhaps referring to the Tour d’Italia held in May. According to the report “Jan Ulrich” is misspelled on the fax which also includes mention of 2006 Giro winner Ivan Basso and Jose Enrique Gutierez, who was second at the Giro.