Ineos Grenadiers may have taken a spectacular Tour de France stage win at Superbagnères on Saturday, thanks to Thymen Arensman, but the victory will do nothing to quell the controversy around the British team over the last week.
Indeed, Arensman's exploits will likely only shine the spotlight on the team more intensely and increase the demand for answers about the nature of the alleged relationship in 2012 between one of its personnel and a German doctor since jailed for doping crimes.
The initial story was researched and broadcast by Germany's TV channel ARD, which describes itself as a "joint organisation of Germany's regional public service broadcasters". The programme was called 'In the Slipstream' and was the latest episode in 'Doping Top Secret', a series of documentaries about doping in sports.
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Some of the content of the programme was based on the trial of Mark Schmidt, the German doctor at the centre of the German-Austrian doping investigation, Operation Aderlass. Irish cycling fans may recall the investigation as one of the riders who rode for Irish ProConti team Aqua Blue Sport, Austrian Stefan Denifl, was arrested as part of the inquiry.
He won a stage of the Vuelta in 2017 while riding for Aqua Blue Sport. However, that was one of the results wiped from the record books when Denifl was banned from racing after his doping was proven.
Denifl was arrested in March, 2019, and in June of that year news emerged he had been convicted and banned. He was convicted of fraud and a court in Germany at the time imposed a two-year sentence, 16 months of which was suspended.
He was accused of doping between 2014 to 2018. His conviction for fraud related to his doping having defrauded the teams he rode for and their sponsors. His teams were effectively his victims under German law.
Operation Aderlass examined the activities of Dr Mark Schmidt, who is based in Germany and previously worked as a doctor with the Gerolsteiner and Milram pro cycling teams. Investigators examined his role in helping athletes from cycling and crosscountry skiing to blood dope.
He worked directly with the individual riders, and crosscountry skiers, some of whom paid him large sums of money, up to €25,000.
Schmidt, then aged 42 years, was jailed for five years in 2021 for his role in blood doping the athletes, from 2012 to 2019. The Munich court that convicted him also banned him from practicing as a doctor for three further years and fined him €158,000.
Journalist Sebastian Krause covered the Schmidt trial every day and took hundreds of pages of notes, with numerous people who worked in cycling being named as the court heard evidence. These included peripheral figures in the sport who were never charged with any doping violations or crimes, or who were not accused of any wrongdoing at the trial.
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Working with ARD, Krause reviewed his notes from the trial, almost five years ago, and identified a person who worked for Ineos/Sky and who had been in contact with Schmidt. The ARD TV crew also secured legal documents related to the trial. Some of the messages sent between Schmidt and the Ineos/Sky worker were aired in court.
One message from the person who allegedly worked for Sky/Ineos to Schmidt said: “Do you still have any of the stuff that Milram used during the races? If so, can you bring it for the boys?”
That message was from June 2012, just weeks before Team Sky first won the Tour de France. It emerged during the court evidence with other messages, including the Sky/Ineos member of personnel arranging to meet Schmidt.
The person working for Sky/Ineos was not named in the German documentary broadcast by the ARD TV channel last month due to legal constraints. However, Paul Kimmage last week in the Sunday Independent summarised the documentary's content. That story also named a person, claiming he was the Sky/Ineos worker the German TV documentary said was in touch with Schmidt.
The publication of a name revived interest in the German documentary, which appeared to pass largely unnoticed, certainly largely unreported, in the weeks after it aired. Some other German outlets did report on the programme last month, but it appears not to have been picked up by the cycling media.
On the Tour de France over the last week - after the Sunday Independent named the person from Ineos/Sky the paper claims was in contact with doping doctor Schmidt - the team has been asked about the coverage.
Initially it did not comment. But it eventually issued a short statement to British journalist, Daniel Friebe, who is working on the Tour for ITV. Friebe is also a presenter on The Cycling Podcast, which he founded along with Richard Moore and Lionel Birnie.
The statement, which very much reserves the team's position, reads: "Ineos Grenadiers Cycling Team is aware of recent media allegations relating to the 2012 season and a member of its staff. These allegations have not to date been presented to the team by any appropriate authority.
"However, the team has made a formal request to the International Testing Agency (ITA) to request any information it considers relevant. The team reiterates its policy of zero tolerance to any breach of the applicable WADA codes, historic or current."
The controversy, relating to the messages sent over a decade ago, coincides with Ineos Grenadiers former boss, Dave Brailsford, returning to the cycling team. He has left his Ineos-sponsored role in Manchester United and gone back to a wider role in Ineos Sport, including being on the Tour with the cycling team.
Brailsford is yet to make any comment on the claims by ARD which were amplified by the Sunday Independent last weekend, three weeks after the German programme aired.
