December 8, 2007 — Five cyclists from T-Mobile were apparently involved in blood doping during the 2006 Tour de France according to the Stuttgarter Zeitung reports AFP. The publication claims that the riders went to the university clinic in Freiburg, Germany where T-Mobile team doctors, Andreas Schmid and Lothar Heinrich were based, for the transfusions on the evening of the Strasburg prologue of the TdF. The two doctors were subsequently fired by the university this spring over T-Mobile doping revelations.

The newspaper’s information emanates from an independent commission this spring at the university to investigate the activities of the sports medicine unit. Patrik Sinkewitz, convicted this year of doping with testosterone, has already admitted to blood doping in 2006 at the clinic, but the revelation that four of his team mates did the same adds fuel to cycling’s doping woes.

The blood doping reputedly took place only two days after former team leader, Jan Ullrich, was excluded from the 2006 TdF due to his suspected association with Dr Eufemiano Fuentes. Fuentes is at the centre of the “Puerto” sports doping scandal.

Deutsche Telekom has already announced that it will withdraw its sponsorship of the T-Mobile team in 2008 because of ongoing doping scandals. The team has announced it will continue under the name of Team High Road.