Operation Aderlass

On 20 March 2019, the state prosecutors in Bavaria confirmed that a total of 21 athletes were under suspicion of having been customers of Mark Schmidt. Not all names were initially reported, so as not to disturb investigative measures.[3]

Following Dürr's statements, Austrian police arrested five athletes at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2019 in Seefeld in Tirol. These were the cross-country skiers Max Hauke and Dominik Baldauf from Austria, Andreas Veerpalu and Karel Tammjärv from Estonia, as well as Alexey Poltoranin from Kazakhstan.[6]

Initial reports suggested that a German speed skater was also involved with Schmidt.[5] On 27 May 2019, the media reported that alpine ski racer Hannes Reichelt was interviewed by the police in the preceding week, concerning possible involvement in the affair. Reichelt vehemently denied the accusations.[7] The charges against Reichelt were dropped on 16 October 2019.[8]

Max Hauke received a suspended five-month sentence on 30 October 2019 from an Innsbruck court for doping violations reaching back to 2015.[9] Dominik Baldauf also received a suspended five-month sentence on 14 January 2020 from the same court.[10] Both athletes had received four-year bans from competition from the Austrian Anti-Doping Agency on 23 July 2019.[11] On 27 January 2020, Johannes Dürr was given a suspended 15-month jail sentence for his involvement in the affair, after pleading guilty. He did however deny having set up connections between Schmidt and fellow cross-country skiers Hauke and Baldauf, as they had claimed.[12] A report by German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel claimed that Dürr had contemplated taking over the doping operations from Schmidt.[13]

The International Ski Federation (FIS) handed four-year bans from competition to Andreas Veerpalu, Karel Tammjärv, and Algo Kärp as well as two Estonian coaches on 29 November 2019.[14] All three athletes had earlier admitted their involvement in the doping practices.[15] Alexey Poltoranin, who had earlier admitted to doping as well, retracted his confession on 8 March 2019.[16] On 12 March, the Kazakh Ministry of Culture and Sports cleared Poltoranin of any charges of having doped, claiming that he only intended to do so and "Fortunately [...] did not use blood doping".[17] He was nevertheless handed a four-year ban from competition from FIS on 6 January 2020.[18]

Alessandro Petacchi pictured in 2012, when he allegedly worked with Schmidt for the purposes of doping

On 3 March 2019, Stefan Denifl, who last rode for the Aqua Blue Sport team, confessed to using blood doping under the assistance of Schmidt.[19] One day later, Georg Preidler, riding for Groupama–FDJ at the time, also confessed to having had two blood extractions with Schmidt in late 2018, but denied having actually doped. He nevertheless terminated his contract with the team.[20] Both Denifl and Preidler were provisionally suspended by the sport's governing body, the UCI.[21] Both were handed four-year bans by the Austrian anti-doping organisation on 27 June 2019,[22] and might face charges for commercial sports fraud in addition to their suspensions.[23]

On 13 May 2019, Danilo Hondo confessed in an interview with German broadcaster ARD to having used blood doping under Schmidt during 2011, when riding with Lampre–ISD. He was subsequently fired from his job as coach for the Swiss cycling federation.[24]

On 14 May 2019, French newspaper Le Monde announced that retired Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi had allegedly worked with Schmidt in 2012 and 2013.[25] Petacchi denied the accusations, but was nevertheless provisionally suspended by the UCI one day later.[26] On 24 August 2019, Petacchi was given a two-year period of ineligibility from the UCI.[27] Alongside Petacchi, Kristijan Koren (Bahrain–Merida), Kristijan Đurasek (UAE Team Emirates), and Borut Božič were also implicated and provisionally suspended. Koren and Đurasek were at the time riding the 2019 Giro d'Italia and the 2019 Tour of California respectively, while Božič worked as a directeur sportif for the Bahrain–Merida team.[26] Later the same day, Bahrain–Merida and UAE Team Emirates confirmed that they had pulled their riders from the races.[21] On 9 October, the UCI handed both Koren and Božič two-year bans from competition.[28] On 13 November 2019, Đurasek was given a four-year ban from the UCI for his part in the doping practices.[29]

On 19 May 2019, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported links by Slovenian Milan Eržen to Operation Aderlass, while Eržen was serving as managing director of the Bahrain–Merida team.[30] On 22 May, it was announced that the UCI had been following the activities of Eržen and Slovenian cycling in general in several investigations.[31]

In May 2019, the UCI suspended mountain biker Christina Kollmann due to blood doping violations in relation to Operation Aderlass.[32] She was subsequently banned from competition for four years and received an eight-month suspended jail sentence from an Austrian court in August 2019.[33]

On 27 November 2019, the UCI announced that they had requested anti-doping samples from 2016 and 2017 to be retested, citing information gathered from Austrian authorities.[23]

Retired cyclist Pirmin Lang, who last rode for IAM Cycling, admitted to his involvement with Aderlass on 22 February 2020, following investigations by Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. He was subsequently dismissed by Swiss Racing Academy, a team he had co-founded and where he was employed as manager and directeur sportif.[34]