Jan Ullrich: World Champion, Olympic Gold Medal winner, Tour de France winner, and... Cheater.

German sports news agency sid announced that blood bags from Operación Puerto have been proven as those of Jan Ullrich through DNA comparison. Public prosecutor Fred Apostel said the comparison shows "without a doubt" that the blood is Ullrich's.

Ullrich's team has fired back that the results have been manipulated, he didn't cheat, etc.

Several things stand out as important:

• Ullrich has repeatedly denied any involvement with Dr. Fuentes or Operación Puerto ("I have never worked together with Fuentes" - Jan Ullrich, May 6, 2006, cited at cyclingnews.com)
  
• his legal team tried repeatedly to block a DNA sample from Ullrich for use in comparison tests ("Ullrich's lawyers have asked a higher Spanish court to block the turn over of bags of blood to German investigators for DNA comparison." cyclingnews.com March 7, 2007)
  
• and then only weeks ago - when the DNA test results seemed imminent - Ullrich announced his retirement
  

Of course, there's always the possibility that foul play was involved as Ullrich claims, and he's innocent, etc., but I just don't see it.

Here's the full text from cyclingnews:

German sports news agency sid revealed on Tuesday afternoon that the blood bags seized in Operación Puerto and marked "Jan," "number 1" or "Hijo Rudicio" ('son of Rudy') have been confirmed to contain the blood of the now-retired German cycling star, Jan Ullrich. Public prosecutor Fred Apostel told sports news agency sid that the comparison with a DNA sample taken from Ullrich's saliva showed "without a doubt" that the blood seized by the Guardia Civil last year indeed belonged to the only German to have ever won the Tour de France.

"We found nine blood bags that we could compare with the DNA probes," Apostel told n-tv. For the prosecutor, this proves that Jan Ullrich had indeed been in contact with the Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. "This shows that blood bags were stored there [in Fuentes' offices]," he added.

The Ullrich camp has meanwhile reacted and posted a statement on the personal website of the former cyclist, janullrich.de. Attorney Johann Schwenn declared that "The defence will take a close look at the opinion of the Federal Criminal Police Office. After the irregularities in the Spanish procedure it is well possible that this finding is the consequence of manipulation. In any case, there is no reason to change anything in the line of defence of Jan Ullrich."

The public prosecutor in Bonn, Germany is investigating fraud charges against Ullrich, as well as his advisor Rudy Pevenage.