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Ullrich gets more bad news

Berlin - The German cycling federation (BDR) has banned former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich from competing in any amateur or public races in the country after the retired athlete was found guilty of blood doping last week.

Ullrich, the 1997 Tour winner who was also a five-times runner-up in the world's biggest race, was suspended for two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for blood doping with the help of a Spanish doctor at the heart of a scandal that stretching back to 2006.

"According to the anti-doping rules of the BDR the ban includes non-licence holders and so it also concerns public races," said BDR Vice President Udo Sprenger.

"So Ullrich is banned from starting in any German public race that has been authorised by the BDR," he told reporters.

Ullrich, who had been due to enter a race in Bielefeld in August 2012, had repeatedly denied any contact with Eufemiano Fuentes, the doctor who had been investigated as part of Spain's Operation Puerto before admitting to it a day after his ban last week.

The scandal broke in 2006 when Spanish police raids uncovered more than 200 code-named blood bags, some of which were linked to cyclists.

Ullrich retired in 2007 after also winning an Olympic gold and silver medal at the Sydney 2000 Games. He became the first German to win the Tour de France in 1997.
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