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Jens spends quite a few pages on the positives of various people who helped
him with his career. Chris Boardman gets a lot of credit as a mentor and
friend, as do Stuart O’Grady and Bobby Julich. Chris, in particular, gets a
big citation for setting the right tone against doping –Jens was already
against it, but he notes that having your team-leader take a strong stance
against it, as Chris did at GAN/Credit Agricole is important for young
professionals. Later, in his talks at events to welcome new team-members,
Jens was at pains to stress that doping wasn’t to be tolerated and anyone
doing it could take the whole team down. He promised if that happened he’d
come round and burn their house down and I’m not sure he wouldn’t have done
it… Jens views on doping are quite clear – his parents live at No 1, Jens Voigt
Ring in his hometown and they made it clear to him that if he ever got caught
doping they’d have to move because of the embarrassment! He mentions
that he got a lot of criticism from other riders for speaking out against
doping, especially as a rider representative with the professional cyclists
association (CPA) – though a lot of support from others, especially his own
team-mates. He was particularly criticised by other riders (and Ivan Basso’s
lawyers!) for his comment when Operacion Puerto broke in 2006 that they
should take all the dopers out and burn them. (Disturbing fire obsession,
come to think of it…!) He mentions that he doesn’t think he knew about
Basso’s involvement when he spoke out and Basso himself didn’t complain
about it.

Interestingly, he defends Bjarne Riis and says he there was never any
suggestion to him of using illegal products and he never saw any sign of it
while he was with CSC – in fact Riis was obsessed with marginal (or more)
gains through training, technology and nutrition even before Team Sky went
there. His views on the damage done to the sport by Lance Armstrong’s
doping activities are forthright but he points out that he’s not the devil –
after Jens’s horrific crash in the 2009 Tour de France, apart from Jen’s
team-mates, Armstrong was the only rider to send him a message at the
hospital.

One thing that Jens notes with amusement is that, despite plenty of evidence
to the contrary, throughout his career the peloton constantly decided that
his attacks wouldn’t work out. (Learn from your mistakes boys..) There is

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