Explore popular quotes and sayings by Patrik Sinkewitz.
Last updated on December 25, 2024.
Patrik Sinkewitz is a German professional road racing cyclist, who is currently suspended from the sport until 2024 for doping and ineligibility offences. He was a climbing specialist who can ride well over a stage race, as in winning the 2004 nine-stage Deutschland Tour. He also rode well in one-day races such as Liège–Bastogne–Liège, where he finished in the top 10 in 2006. He did not perform well in his first major tour, finishing 59th in the 2005 Tour de France. The following year he finished 23rd and had good stage results. In February 2014 he was banned from competition for 8 years for a second anti-doping rule violation, having tested positive for testosterone in 2007 and recombinant human growth hormone in 2011.
It's possible that the name Bettini came up at some point during a conversation with the German Cycling Federation's anti-doping commission, but I certainly didn't claim that he gave me any drugs. They made that up. Bettini warned me: If you said that, then things could get dangerous for you.
I wouldn't call it an addiction. But the truth is, when you join a team as a new professional you encounter a system. As a young rider, older riders let you know how the business works.
My mother had to justify the fact that she had heart pills.
The patient in the bed next to me told me that the newspapers were reporting on the test, and it was on television all day long.
Of course they were saying: No doping! But as a rider, it's difficult to believe that things can really change from one day to the next.
I stayed in Hamburg a few more days, and during that time I received a visit from Rolf Aldag, the sporting director at T-Mobile. He advised me to tell the truth.
I made a big mistake. There's no doubt about it. But there have been positive testing cases in the past where the offender wasn't attacked to quite the same extent, especially not by other riders.
Ampoules containing cortisone, testosterone gel residues, syringes and needles, a centrifuge for measuring my blood values.But, contrary to the erroneous reports in the press, they didn't find any EPO or growth hormone.
I rubbed the contents of one bag onto my upper arm on the evening of June 7, just before I went to bed. I thought: Well, it can't hurt. I flushed the packaging down the toilet.
The truth is that things were already going so poorly for me that nothing surprised me anymore. But then the BKA sent 20 agents to search my house.
The crazy thing is that I really wasn't under any pressure. My contract wasn't going to expire until the end of 2008, and everyone was satisfied with me. But I wasn't. I always wanted to improve.
I assumed the amount wouldn't be detectable. I also didn't feel that I had done anything wrong.
The message I understood was this: Just don't get caught!
I can count off on one hand the number of times I've used testosterone gel - because it doesn't really do much.
I wasn't in a position to defend myself. Sometimes it's a brutal profession. The first thing I thought of at the time was revenge. I have a more levelheaded take on the issue today.
Riders called me up afterwards to say that they had had no other choice. I couldn't understand the way they changed their tune.
I spent my first two years as a professional with Mapei in Italy, on their youth team. We rode in minor races. Doping wasn't an issue. S