Not for the first time in the team’s history, the Ineos Grenadiers are staying resolutely silent in the face of a barrage of questions at the Tour de France. The British squad has been in the spotlight at the sport’s biggest race for much of the past week, after it was reported that a long-time staff member was allegedly linked to the German doping ring uncovered by the Operation Aderlass investigation.
On Saturday, the team’s Dutch rider Thymen Arensman admitted in a bizarre press conference after his stage win on Superbagnères that it was “weird” that the Ineos management was refusing to answer questions from journalists on the reports.
But despite this admission, when approached at the start of stage 15 in Muret, the squad’s sports director Zak Dempster told road.cc that he simply didn’t “have any more information to say”.
On 21 June, a documentary by German national broadcaster ARD, reported at the time by road.cc, claimed that as many as 14 figures alleged to have been involved in Operation Aderlass are still working in professional cycling.
In 2021, Erfurt-based German physician Mark Schmidt was sentenced to four years and ten months in prison for running a doping ring that included pro riders such as Alessandro Petacchi, Danilo Hondo, and Borut Bozic, and reportedly involved a form of powered haemoglobin, leading to 11 cyclists and nine cross-country skiers receiving bans.
Schmidt had worked for the former ProTour team Milram, and in 2019 Hondo and Stefan Denifl admitted to blood doping carried out under Schmidt’s guidance during their careers.
ARD reported that one of those 14 figures allegedly involved in the investigation and still working in cycling holds an “important position” at the Ineos Grenadiers and was part of the team during its Tour-winning glory days as Team Sky in the 2010s.
Using notes taken by a reporter during Schmidt’s trial in September 2020, the German broadcaster claimed that the man may have even played an important role in Schmidt’s doping network, judging by text messages presented as evidence during the trial and sent before and during the 2012 Tour de France.
ARD did not name the Ineos staff member, due to the statute of limitations in Germany having expired for both doping and criminal allegations, though he has been subsequently named in reports in the Irish Independent, the Times, and L’Équipe.
During the trial, it was claimed that the man allegedly introduced Schmidt to a suspected doping dealer, who the doctor recommended to his riders as a supplier of the likes of Aicar, a blood boosting variant of EPO, while purchasing blood doping equipment from companies in Vienna and Ljubljana.
The current Ineos employee also allegedly helped plan a visit by Schmidt to the 2012 Tour de France, which was won by Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins, the first British winner of the race and the first of what would end up seven Tour victories for the squad during the 2010s.
There is no evidence to suggest that Wiggins or any other Sky rider at the time is linked to any of the allegations outlined in the recent reports.
But this is not the first time that Sky’s 2012 victory has been shrouded in controversy. Following the Fancy Bears hack of 2016, it was revealed that Bradley Wiggins received injections of the powerful corticosteroid triamcinolone on three occasions, including before the 2012 Tour, using therapeutic use exemption certificates arranged by Dr Richard Freeman.
Freeman was later struck off and banned from sport in 2023 after being found to have ordered testosterone in the knowledge or belief it was for a rider.
Geert Leinders was also employed by the team on a consultancy basis at the time of the 2012 Tour, before the former Rabobank doctor was let go at the end of that year when his role in the Dutch team’s doping programme was revealed as part of the USADA investigation into Lance Armstrong and US Postal.
Last week, the Irish Independent published some of the messages detailed in the ARD reporter’s notes. One, sent by the staff member to Schmidt on 9 June 2012, a month before the start of that year’s Tour, read: “Do you still have any of the stuff that Milram used during the races? If so, can you bring it for the boys?”
In another message, the Sky staff member asked Schmidt to “call me ASAP”, with the doctor writing the next day: “What say team?”
Three days before the start of the Tour, Schmidt sent another message to the staff member: “I also sent him now two tests from him in the same laboratory, Dresden, which are correct. With temperature history and a correct working sensor. I marked all, so he can see different. Have a good night. I will work some hours more, cheers.”
Meanwhile, on 6 July, the day before Chris Froome won the mountaintop finish at La Planche des Belle Filles and Wiggins rode into the yellow jersey, messages were exchanged between Schmidt and the staff member about meeting for “a beer” at the Team Sky hotel.
Dave Brailsford press conference 2021 (credit: Bioracer)
In the days after the messages were first published, the Ineos Grenadiers refused to comment on the reports, with Sir Dave Brailsford – returning to the squad after a spell at Manchester United – even engaging in a brief but fractious encounter with journalists outside the squad’s bus.
On Thursday evening, the squad finally broke its silence, issuing the following statement.
“Ineos Grenadiers Cycling Team is aware of recent media allegations relating to the 2012 season and a member of its staff,” the statement read.
“These allegations have not to date been presented to the team by any appropriate authority, however the team has made a formal request to the International Testing Agency (ITA) to request any information it considers relevant.
“The team reiterates its policy of zero tolerance to any breach of the applicable WADA codes, historic or current.”
However, the team’s unwillingness to elaborate on this statement when questioned by journalists at the Tour resulted in a bizarre scene on Saturday evening, during Ineos rider Thymen Arensman’s post-stage press conference, following his solo victory on Superbagnères.
Thymen Arensman wins stage 14, 2025 Tour de France (credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Prior to the press conference, which was delayed, reporters were told that only race-related questions would be allowed, and those who had indicated that they would ask questions about the allegations swirling around the team had their accreditation checked by Tour organisers ASO.
However, ASO later claimed that the request to avoid questions not related to Arensman’s victory instead referred to the incident involving Ineos DS Oli Cookson, who hit a spectator with a team car during the stage and was subsequently fined £4,700.
When the press conference eventually started, it only lasted four minutes and featured only four questions, two of which were about the recent allegations.
Asked if the staff member in question was at the Tour, Arensman replied: “I have no idea about this.”
“You’d have to ask the management to be honest,” the Dutch pro continued. “I’m just focused on my job and doing my own thing, so I don’t really know, to be honest. You’d have to ask about the management, they are there for it.”
Asked if he felt it was fair that these questions were being directed at him, when the Ineos management had refused to comment, Arensman said: “I don’t know. If you’re trying to ask the management, then it’s weird that they don’t really answer you.
“But like I said, I’m just focused on my job, and I just won the biggest thing in my career, so I’m trying to enjoy that.”
While Arensman, quite understandably, appeared keen to point journalists in the direction of his bosses at Ineos, the reception from the squad’s management figures remains stubbornly the same: no comment.
Speaking outside the Ineos bus on Sunday morning in Muret, ahead of stage 15 to Carcassonne, the team’s sports director Zak Dempster said that it was not up to Arensman to answer questions about historic doping allegations on the part of the team.
However, Dempster continued to point towards the statement issued by Ineos on Thursday, adding that he had nothing to add to the matter.
When asked why Ineos have refused to answer questions about the reports, the Australian again declined to comment, saying that reporters should ask the team’s press officer about it.
The press officer, standing beside Dempster during the interview, then reiterated that the team had issued a statement, which detailed their position.
When asked if, in light of Arensman’s press conference comments, the team’s management had spoken to their riders about how best to handle the issue with the press, Dempster told road.cc: “I think I already answered the question before, you know?
“I don’t have any more information to say, refer to the statement and the press officer instead of us.”
When pressed again, Dempster said: “Look, I’m not the press officer, so yeah, that’s it.”
Ineos may be determined to stay silent, but the questions will keep coming.