Michael Lehner, the lawyer who represented Patrik Sinkewitz when the German first tested positive in 2007, has said that he was very surprised to hear that the rider had once again failed a drugs test.
“After his key witness agreement and his public confession, I was convinced that Mr Sinkewitz was [now] a clean athlete,” Lehner told dpa. “I would be very disappointed if I am mistaken in my assessment.”
Lehner became part of Sinkewitz’ defence team almost four years ago when he failed a test for testosterone. That was an out of competition sample taken on June 8th, weeks prior to that year’s Tour de France, but the result wasn’t announced until during the French race. He had crashed out of the event when he hit a spectator when descending after the stage 8 summit finish to Tignes.
Sinkewitz admitted using the substance, and also confessed to using EPO and blood transfusions. He was liable to a two year ban, but this was reduced to one year after he testified about others involved in doping, including former team-mates at T-Mobile, as well as team doctors and staff.
The former Deutschland Tour winner returned to cycling in 2009 with the PSK Whirlpool-Author team, winning a stage plus the overall in the Sachsen Tour, as well as a stage of the Tour of Portugal.
He was competing this season with the Farnese Vini-Netti Sottoli team when he was tested at the GP di Lugano on February 27th. That test subsequently returned traces of Human Growth Hormone (HGH), and the B sample is now subject to analysis.
Sinkewitz is facing a possible lifetime ban from the sport. German cycling federation president Rudolf Scharping has made it clear that he would back such a sanction if the test result is confirmed. “To protect the clean riders, then people like Sinkewitz should be out,” he said.
Rule changes this year mean that the National Anti Doping Agency NADA is responsible for the disciplinary procedure and sanctioning. Sinkewitz is yet to comment on the test result.