Professor Franke reacted and filed charges against Ullrich. Franke claims that the 1997 Tour de France winner has sworn an affidavit that Ullrich knows is not true. Franke told German daily newspaper Stuttgarter Nachrichten in August that Ullrich has sworn that he has nothing to do with Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. "But that contradicts the documents from the Guardia Civil," Franke said.

 

According to German daily newspaper Tagesspiegel the state prosecution of Hamburg again recieved post of professor Franke and forwarded it imediatly to the state prosecution of Bonn, who is investigating fraud charges against Ullrich. The content of Frankes letter to the state prosecuter of Hamburg is explosive, assumed it is true what Franke wrote in his sworn affidavit, if not Franke commited a criminal offence. 

 

The stakes are high because if on the other hand Ullrich didn't tell the truth in his sworn affidavit, Ullrich commited a criminal offence. Franke based his affidavit on a meeting on September 29 in Madrid. Franke flew to the Spanish capital with his attorney, Michael Lehner and a Spanish speaking colleague. Lehner is also the attorney of  German rider Jörg Jaksche who, like Ullrich, also is allegedly involved in the Puerto affair.

 

The German delegation met with chief Puerto investigator Enrique Gomez Bastida and another Spanish policeman. Enrique Gomez has to attend at court hearing in Madrid on November 29. Gomez is the author of the Puerto report and Jan Ullrich's attorney, Marcus Hotze, told Cyclingheroes last week: "The court of Madrid opened an investigation because of unauthorized circulation and modification of the Puerto documents. It is totally unclear who has which version of the Puerto documents. The author of the Guardia Civil's Puerto report will have to appear at a court hearing as an accused. The people who are responsible for this have a considerable problem."

According to Tagesspiegel Franke said in his written affidavit that Gomez told him that Ullrich had a relation with Fuentes since at least 2003. The newspaper published a lot of details of the letter from Franke, who also claims that Gomez told him that the Spanish investigators have pictures  of Jan Ullrich with Dr. Fuentes.

 

Ullrichs manager, Wolfgang Strohband  reacted by saying: "Given that there is so much fantasy involved, we won't give any comments anymore." At one point there is already dubiety, which feeds doubt whether the allegations of Gomez or rather Franke are true. Franke writes between angular brackets in his affidavit about the alleged visits of Ullrich in Madrid in May 2006: "In my understanding the days of treatment were between May 9 and May 12, especially May 10". Strohband reacted: " Who takes a look at the calender knows that the Giro d'Italia took place at that time."

 

The Giro d'Italia started at May 6 in Seraing, Belgium and ended on May 28 in Milano, Italy. On May 9 Jan Ullrich was on board of an airplane which took off at Liège airport at 21:30. Earlier on the day,  the participants of this years Giro d'Italia,among them Jan Ullrich, raced the fourth stage of the Tour of Italy, a stage from the Belgian city of Wanze to Hotton (which is also in Belgium) over 193 kilometers. On May 10 there was a restday, so theoraticlly Ullrich could have flown from Italy to Madrid on that day . It has to be said though that Gomez also told Franke that the doping network had branches in Orleans (France), Frankfurt (Germany) and northern Italy. Even if Gomez told Franke (according to Frankes affidavit) "that certain, prominent,  cyclists were handled by Dr. Fuentes directly in Spain, normally in Madrid," it brings up the question why a rider would fly to Madrid in the middle of the Giro if he can get the same "treatment" in Italy.

A representative of the state prosecution of Hamburg, told Cyclingheroes last week that they can not comment about the case at the moment as they are "waiting for the results of the investigation" in Bonn.