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CYCLING

Danish cyclist Sørensen admits to doping

Four-time Danish National Road Race winner Nicki Sørensen admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs ahead of the release of a major report on the scope of doping in Danish cycling.

Published: 22 June 2015 20:47 CEST
Danish cyclist Sørensen admits to doping
Nicki Sørensen in a 2013 race. Photo: Keld Navntoft/Scanpix
Danish former professional road cyclist Nicki Sørensen on Monday admitted to doping, one day before the release of a major report by Denmark's anti-doping agency.
 
“I have doped, I have fully admitted that. I'm sorry for that and I wish I had done differently,” he told Danish tabloid BT.
 
Sørensen, who won four Danish National Road Race Championships between 2003 and 2011, denied his former team principal Bjarne Riis had encouraged him to do so.
 
“It happened in the early years of my career, more than ten years back. It was my own decision to do it,” he said.
 
Former Tinkoff-Saxo manager Riis won the 1996 Tour de France but admitted in 2007 that he used the banned blood-booster EPO (erythropoietin) to secure victory.
 
Danish anti-doping agency ADD is due to release a report on the use of doping substances in Danish cycling on Tuesday.
 
Three years in the making, the study will be the biggest of its kind in the Scandinavian country.
 
“I have told ADD about my own experiences. I have done that to relieve my own conscience and also because I wanted to help cycling,” Sørensen said.
 
The highlight of Sørensen's career were individual stage wins at the 2009 Tour de France and 2005 Vuelta a Espana.
 
He ended his 15-year professional career, in which he finished 20th overall at the 2002 Tour de France, at the end of last season before becoming a coach with Tinkoff.

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CYCLING

Swiss rider dies after fall into ravine on Tour of Switzerland

Swiss rider Gino Maeder has died from the injuries he sustained when he plunged into a ravine during a stage of the Tour of Switzerland, his team Bahrain-Victorious said on Friday.

Published: 16 June 2023 12:54 CEST
Swiss rider dies after fall into ravine on Tour of Switzerland

Maeder, 26, fell during a high-speed descent on the fifth stage between Fiesch and La Punt on Thursday, after an exhausting day marked by three ascents over 2,000 metres altitude.

He had been found “lifeless in the water” of a ravine below the road, “immediately resuscitated then transported to the hospital in Chur by air”, organisers said.

But the next day, “Gino lost his battle to recover from the serious injuries he sustained,” Bahrain-Victorious said in a statement.

“It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we must announce the passing of Gino Mäder,” his team wrote in a statement.

“On Friday June 16th, following a very serious fall during the fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse, Gino lost his fight to recover from the serious injuries he had suffered. Our entire team is devastated by this tragic accident, and our thoughts and prayers are with Gino’s family and loved ones at this incredibly difficult time.”

“Despite the best efforts of the phenomenal staff at Chur hospital, Gino couldn’t make it through this, his final and biggest challenge, and at 11:30am we said goodbye to one of the shining lights of our team,” the team said in a statement.

Maeder had enjoyed a strong start to the season, finishing fifth in the Paris-Nice race.

American rider Magnus Sheffield also fell on the same descent from Albula, during the most difficult stage of the race with multiple climbs. The Ineos-Grenadiers rider was hospitalised with “bruises and concussion,” organisers said.

On Thursday, world champion Remco Evenepoel criticised the decision to compete on such a dangerous road.

“While a summit finish would have been perfectly possible, it wasn’t a good decision to let us finish down this dangerous descent,” the Belgian wrote on Twitter.

“As riders, we should also think about the risks we take going down a mountain.”

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