Doped with Petacchi in the room: Ex-professional cyclist reveals

The now 46-year-old said this during his testimony in the blood doping trial on Tuesday in Munich. As teammates at the Lampre racing team, the two athletes were sometimes even treated next to each other in the hotel room by the Erfurt doctor. Hondo was Petacchi's main assistant “If you have such a close relationship that was almost brotherly, then you have no problem with being doped together in the same room,” Hondo reported to the Munich regional court.

Hondo was Petacchi's most important helper for the sprints at the time, and the two are still good friends. Unlike Hondo, Petacchi still denies having been doped by Mark S. Nevertheless, the Italian, who was one of the best sprinters in the world in the early noughties and the winner of dozens of stages in the three major tours, was subsequently banned.

Alessandro Petacchi © APA/afp / PASCAL PAVANI

“It seemed to have done more harm to me.” Danilo Hondo Hondo said that he was persuaded by Mark S. to do blood doping in the fall of 2011. In the winter, blood was taken, which was processed and taken back to the important races in 2012 such as Milan-Sanremo or the Tour de France. But Hondo no longer celebrated any successes. “It seemed to have done more harm to me,” he said. After the 2012 season he stopped Mark S.'s blood doping. The collaboration cost him around 25.000 euros.

When the blood doping affair was exposed in February 2019 as part of “Operation Aderlass” during the Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld, Hondo's name was also mentioned, who then confessed in an interview and lost his job as national coach in Switzerland.

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Doped with Petacchi in the room: Ex-professional cyclist reveals

The former German professional cyclist Danilo Hondo says he was doped together with the former Italian sprint star Alessandro Petacchi by the doctor Mark S.

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