Rolf Aldag

Infobox Cyclist
ridername = Rolf Aldag

---

caption = Rolf Aldag, individual time trial Tour de France 2003
fullname = Rolf Aldag
nickname =
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1968|8|25
country = GER
currentteam = Team Columbia
discipline = Road
role = Directeur sportif
ridertype =
amateuryears =
amateurteams =
proyears = 1991–1992
1993–2005
proteams = Helvetia
Telekom/T-Mobile
manageyears = 2006–
manageteams = T-Mobile
majorwins = flagicon|Germany National Champion (2000)
updated = May 24 2007

Rolf Aldag (born 25 August 1968 in Beckum, Germany) is a former professional road bicycle racer who rode for Team Telekom from 1993 to 2005. He has raced in 10 Tour de France, 1 Giro d'Italia and 5 Vuelta a España. Prior to his joining Telekom he had raced with Helvetia.

Career

His career highlights include third stage place in both the 1994 and 1995 Tour de France, a stage win in the Tour de Limousin in 1996, a stage win in the Tour de Suisse 1997, overall win of the Tour of Bavaria in 1999, a stage win in the Deutschland Tour 1999, being the German road Champion in 2000, a stage win Deutschland Tour 2001, a stage win in the Tour of Bavaria 2002, a 2nd stage place in the 2003 Tour de France, winner of the Sparkassen-Giro Bochum in 2003, and winner of the Sparkassen Cup Unna in 2003.

Aldag was prominent in the film "Hell on Wheels" concerning the 2003 Tour de France.

In "retirement", Aldag has set a goal of competing in Ironman triathlons. His first training goal was to complete a marathon in 2 hours 40 minutes. He finished the Hamburg marathon in April 2006 with a time of 2 hours 42 minutes. He went on to finish the 2006 Ironman Lanzarote triathlon in the Canary Islands in 50th place of 825 finishers with a total time of 10:22:14 (swim 1:23:18, bike 5:18:05, run 3:27:56).

T-Mobile hired Aldag as sporting director after sacking Rudy Pevenage who was named in the 2006 Operación Puerto doping case.

Doping Confession

On 24 May, 2007 Aldag together with former Team Telekom team mate and personal friend Erik Zabel admitted having used Erythropoietin (EPO) from 1995 to 1999. Aldag also publicly apologized for having lied about his use of EPO in the past. [cite news| url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/may07/may24news2 |title=Zabel and Aldag confess EPO usage |date=2007-05-24 |accessdate=2007-05-24 |work=cyclingnews.com |first=Susan |last=Westemeyer] His confession was triggered by accusations of former Team Telekom masseur Jef d'Hont from Belgium. In his book, of which excerpts where printed in the German political magazine Der Spiegel in April 2007, D'Hont accused members of Team Telekom of systematic and organized doping with EPO in the mid 1990s. [http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/0,1518,480042,00.html Masseur wirft Team Telekom systematisches Doping vor] Der Spiegel, 28 April 2007 (German)]

ee also

* List of doping cases in cycling
*List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences

References