Amnesty and truth sharing process

In an interview to Cyclingnews Jörg Jaksche states that he thinks anyone who possesses information about illegal substances, and testifies about cycling’s doping culture, should be given some kind of amnesty and allowed into a truth sharing process. Such action would include persons Lance Armstrong.

“I think that truth and any reconciliation should not be about sanctions. It is about solutions,” he stated to Cyclingnews.

“Lance Armstrong is not the roots of evil in sports. The sport allowed Lance to be as he was. I know Lance was a strange guy like we all were, racing down the Galibier at 110k an hour with rain and snow only dressed in lycra. But he is human and he will get more human with time, it is good for him and good for the sport. I think Lance is so struck in his legal battles that he can’t be 100 per cent honest and open about his past. However it would be wise for [Brian] Cookson to just offer him to talk to him when Lance can be 100 per cent honest."

Jaksche knows what he is talking about. In the 2006 Tour de France he was among the nine riders kept out of the race due to the Operación Puerto investigation. About a year after he revealed that he was guilty of blood doping, and that he was the Bella that was mentioned in the confiscated documents.

Jaksche has since become an anti-doping activist, and has revealed everything about his doping experiences on former teams Polti, Telekom, ONCE, CSC, Astaba and Tinkoff Credit Systems. The confessions were made to German police, the anti-doping agency and to the UCI.

The German ex-rider continued on Armstrong:

“Lance is a tricky subject, but TRC is about the sport and while I condemn the bullying he did to people like Emma O’Reilly, that should not be confused with the sport and he should be made welcome if he wants to talk, but you know I am not better or worse than him in what I did in terms of doping, so I am not a moral benchmark.”

“Let’s see what happens, if Cookson asks me I will go, but lets see what the UCI will do with all that info. I tried one time in 2007 and they screwed me.”