Rolf Aldag (born 25 August 1968 in Beckum,

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

) is a former professional

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

who rode for

Team Telekom A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to info ...

from 1993 to 2005. He raced in 10

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

, 1 Giro d'Italia and 5

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the r ...

. Prior to joining Telekom, he raced with

Helvetia Helvetia () is the female national personification of Switzerland, officially ''Confoederatio Helvetica,'' the Swiss Confederation. The allegory is typically pictured in a flowing gown, with a spear and a shield emblazoned with the Swiss fl ...

. Beginning in 2020, Aldag works as ''

directeur sportif A ''directeur sportif'' (French for sporting director, although the original French term is often used in English-language media; plural ''directeurs sportifs'') is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is se ...

'' for the Canyon–SRAM team. In 2007 Aldag admitted to doping -- having used

Erythropoietin Erythropoietin (; EPO), also known as erythropoetin, haematopoietin, or haemopoietin, is a glycoprotein cytokine secreted mainly by the kidneys in response to cellular hypoxia; it stimulates red blood cell production (erythropoiesis) in the bo ...

(EPO) from 1995 to 1999.

Career

His career highlights include third stage place in both the 1994 and 1995 Tour de France, a stage win in the Tour de Limousin in 1996, a stage win in the

Tour de Suisse The Tour de Suisse ( en, Tour of Switzerland) is an annual road cycling stage race. Raced over eight days, the event covers two weekends in June, and along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is considered a proving ground for the Tour de France ...

1997, overall win of the Bayern-Rundfahrt in 1999, a stage win in the

Deutschland Tour The Deutschland Tour (English: ''Tour of Germany'' and sometimes ''Deutschland-Rundfahrt'' in German) is the most important multi-stage road bicycle race in Germany. Initially the race was held in May/June, but from 2005 until 2008 it was moved t ...

1999, being the German road Champion in 2000, a stage win Deutschland Tour 2001, a stage win in the Bayern-Rundfahrt 2002, a 2nd stage place in the, winner of the Sparkassen-Giro Bochum in 2003, and winner of the Sparkassen Cup Unna in 2003. Aldag featured in the film ''Hell on Wheels'' concerning the 2003 Tour de France. In "retirement", Aldag set a goal of competing in Ironman triathlons. He finished the Hamburg marathon in April 2006 with a time of 2 hours 42 minutes. He went on to finish the 2006 Ironman Lanzarote triathlon in the Canary Islands in 50th place of 825 finishers with a total time of 10:22:14 (swim 1:23:18, bike 5:18:05, run 3:27:56). T-Mobile hired Aldag as sporting director after sacking

Rudy Pevenage Rudy Pévenage (15 June 1954) is a former Belgian cyclist, and later in his career team coach of cycling teams such as , , , and . Pévenage was a professional cyclist from 1976 until 1988. His largest success was in the 1980 Tour de France: h ...

who was named in the 2006

Operación Puerto doping case Operación Puerto (''Operation Mountain Pass'') is the code name of a still unfinished Spanish Police operation against the pro sports doping network of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. It started in May 2006, which resulted in a scandal that involved se ...

. Aldag managed the team up the end of 2011 when folded due to lack of sponsorship. Following the team's demise, Aldag spent a year working for the

World Triathlon Corporation The World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) is a sports event promotion company owned by conglomerate Advance Publications, that produces the Ironman Triathlon, Ironman 70.3, the 5150 series of triathlon races, and other sports events. History In De ...

before taking up a role as a technical link-man between

Specialized Bicycle Components Specialized Bicycle Components, Inc., colloquially known as and stylized as SPECIALIZED, is an American company which designs, manufactures and markets bicycles, bicycle components and related products under the brand name "Specialized", as wel ...

and in 2013. In 2014 he became the Belgian team's Sport and Development Manager. In November 2015 announced that Aldag had been appointed as the team's Performance Manager with immediate effect, linking up with 2016 signings

Mark Cavendish Mark Simon Cavendish (born 21 May 1985) is a Isle of Man, Manx professional Road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . As a Track cycling, track cyclist he specialises in the Madison (cycling), madison, po ...

Mark Renshaw Mark Renshaw (born 22 October 1982) is a retired Australian racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2004 and 2019 for the , , , , and teams. His most notable wins are the general classification of the 2011 Tour of Qatar, and the one ...

and

Bernhard Eisel Bernhard Eisel (born 17 February 1981) is an Austrian former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2001 and 2019 for the , , , and teams. Following his retirement, he worked as an analyst and presenter for Eurosport ...

. On 3 September 2019, the now renamed team announced that Aldag would leave at the end of the season. On 9 December 2019, Canyon–SRAM announced Aldag as their new ''

'' for the 2020 season.

Doping confession

1 Mai 2000 Henninger Rennen Mammolshainer Berg

On 24 May 2007 Aldag together with former Team Telekom team mate and personal friend

Erik Zabel Erik Zabel (; born 7 July 1970) is a German former professional road bicycle racer who raced most of his career with Telekom. With 152 professional wins and 211 wins in his career, he is considered by some to be one of the greatest German cycl ...

admitted having used

(EPO) from 1995 to 1999. Aldag also publicly apologized for having lied about his use of EPO in the past. His confession was triggered by accusations of former Team Telekom masseur

Jef d'Hont Jef is a Dutch-language masculine given name primarily used in Belgium. It is a short form of Jozef/ Josef, used also in Breton. People with the name include: *Jef Billings (born 1945), American figure skating costume designer * Jef Boeke (born 1 ...

from Belgium. In his book, of which excerpts where printed in the German political magazine ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'' in April 2007, D'Hont accused members of Team Telekom of systematic and organized doping with EPO in the mid-1990s.Masseur wirft Team Telekom systematisches Doping vor
Der Spiegel, 28 April 2007 (German)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aldag, Rolf 1968 births Living people People from Warendorf (district) Sportspeople from Münster (region) German male cyclists German sportspeople in doping cases German cycling road race champions Cyclists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists of Germany Doping cases in cycling Tour de Suisse stage winners Cyclists from North Rhine-Westphalia

Career

Doping confession

See also

References