'Will some be nervous about what you have to say?': Operacion Puerto doctor Eufemiano Fuentes to give rare TV interview
Fuentes admits he cheated, adding he doesn't know anyone who didn't
The doctor at the centre of the Operación Puerto doping case, Eufemiano Fuentes, is set to give a rare TV interview this week.
Details of exactly what he will reveal about the Spanish doping scandal, which implicated not just cycling but also football and tennis, is not currently known, but a short preview shows the doctor admitting to cheating, but saying he doesn't know anyone who wasn't, as well as asking the interview to define what they mean by doping.
"Do you think someone may be nervous about what you say?" Fuentes is asked. "That almost certainly," comes the reply.
"Did you dope?"
"Define doping."
"Were you cheating?"
"Yes, and I don't know anyone who didn't."
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Fuentes claims he was told to improve performance but without causing any problems. "I don't want positives, but I want results," he says, before adding that if he revealed everything he knew, some medals won at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics would no longer stand.
Fuentes is then asked about his involvement with using testosterone and EPO, as well as the use of blood bags and blood transfusions in hotel rooms.
Operación Puerto was a police operation that resulted in hundreds of blood bags being seized from a clinic run by Fuentes. 11 athletes were identified by the World Anti-Doping Agency as having been clients of Fuentes, but due to the 10-year statute of limitations having elapsed, they could not be made public.
In 2009 Valverde was given a two-year ban by the Court of Arbitration for sport for his involvement in Puerto. Despite never actually failing a doping test, he was linked to the doping ring by DNA evidence.
Fuentes also says that other sports, such as football, have been protected more than others in relation to doping scandals being made public.
The interview will air on Sunday March 28 at 21:25 (CET), on the Lo de Évole show on Spanish TV channel La Sexta.
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Jonny was Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor until 2022.
I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.
Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).
I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.