Cycling: The name Rudy Pevenage is familiar to many cycling fans. Although the Belgian was also a quite successful professional cyclist, most people still remember him as Jan Ullrich's personal manager and the sporting director of Team Telekom. This meant he was active during the height of doping in cycling. Now, in his book "Nothing But the Truth – Confessions of a Cycling Insider," he reveals all about that time.
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Rudy Pevenage describes lies and strange methods
Looking back at cycling's past is painful. Many fans were on the edge of their seats back then, watching live on television or even standing by the roadside. The duels between Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong electrified the entire sporting world. But years later, this world collapsed. Cycling sank into a doping quagmire. We now know about the doping practices of that time. More and more former participants are speaking out. Rudy Pevenage now describes exactly how this fraud was organized and carried out in his book. The Belgian was a professional cyclist himself and was known as Jan Ullrich's manager from 1995 to the end of 2006. His biography, "Nothing But the Truth – Confessions of a Cycling Insider," will be published in German on June 10th by Delius Klasing Verlag. The book was already published in Dutch earlier this year under the title "Der Rudy."
Rudy Pevenage in the foreword of his book:
“I'm no longer afraid of reactions or comments. I don't want to hurt anyone, but I'm telling the truth about what I went through and saw."
Ullrich & Pevenage were caught by a call to Fuentes
While many tell-all books only scratch the surface, Rudy Pevenage's 256-page biography seems to dig deep. On the first few pages, the reader first gets to know the young and talented Belgian, who later became a professional himself and celebrated notable successes. And then we get down to business. We're talking about blood bags in milk cartons and doping substances in double-walled coke cans. The narrow survival of raids and doping tests is more reminiscent of a crime thriller than a sports biography. And we also know the ending from the movies. Jan Ullrich was probably only caught because Rudy Pevenage happily called doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes after his protégé's victory - with his own mobile phone. A fatal mistake, because the Spaniard was already bugged. Strange that he of all people now praises Pevenage for his honest book.
Posted by Euphemian Fuentes on the book cover:
"Finally a book that tells the whole truth."
Competition: We are giving away "Nothing but the truth"
In his autobiography – with the assistance of John van Ierland and translated from the Dutch by René Stein – Rudy Pevenage primarily describes his own career – from talented youngster to professional cyclist to doping offender as a team manager. For German-speaking readers, however, the passages concerning Team Telekom and Jan Ullrich are particularly interesting. And although, as with almost any tell-all book by a perpetrator, one rightly asks the moral question of whether one wants to increase their earnings by purchasing such a book, this biography is indeed worth reading. Many fans from that era will now receive answers from Rudy Pevenage that other involved parties have yet to provide. We are giving away a copy of "Nothing But the Truth – Confessions of a Cycling Insider" in our competition.
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