Cycling: Millar's team headquarters searched in EPO investigation

Alasdair Fotheringham
Tuesday 13 January 2004 20:00 EST
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The headquarters of Cofidis, the team that Britain's leading cyclist David Millar rides for, have been searched by French police pursuing a drugs ring in an investigation that is centred on one of the squad's masseurs, Bob Madejak.

Madejak was later arrested after flying in from Spain where the team is training and is one of four individuals being interrogated about the case.

The police search on Monday in Wasquehal, northern France, followed the detention at a Paris airport of a former Cofidis rider, the Pole Marek Rukiewicz, who was carrying banned substances, including steroids and the banned red blood-cell booster erythropoietin.

No suspicious products were reported to have been found in the search of the Cofidis HQ, but a number of riders' dossiers were removed.

Millar, who is training with his team-mates, was said by his sister and representative, Frances, to be "unfazed about the situation. The important thing is for the authorities to sort it all out."

The Cofidis team manager, Alain Bondue, said: "The police have told me that their investigation into Cofidis was already over."

Alasdair Fotheringham writes for Cycling Weekly

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