FUENTES DREAMS OF WINNING THE NOBEL PRIZE

Eufemiano Fuentes, the controversial medic at the centre of the Spanish anti-doping probe Operacion Puerto, has told the German media that he dreams of ?winning the Nobel prize in 20 years time.?

In an interview due to appear in the German magazine Stern on Thursday, Fuentes is reported as describing high-level professional sport as ?a circus in which athletes' health is only taken into account on a secondary level.? His work, he allegedly explains, was to ?help? these athletes.

Perhaps with a certain degree of irony, Fuentes apparently goes on to claim: ?Maybe they?ll give me the Nobel prize in 20 years time or maybe they?ll build me a monument. Or maybe they?ll kill me.?

More seriously, Fuentes also argues that the organisms of professional cyclists ?are not made to tolerate three weeks of continuous effort.?

This is not a new idea for Fuentes: his doctoral thesis in the mid-1980s covered the same subject - the effect on professional bike riders of riding a major tour. After that, as a team doctor he had ample opportunities to study the real-life effects of stage racing.

Meanwhile in other doping-related news, Predictor-Lotto pro Bjarne Leukemans has been sacked from his team following the confirmation of a positive test for testosterone. Leukemans finished fourth in Paris-Roubaix this year.

RELATED LINKS: OPERACION PUERTO

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