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Rolf Aldag

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Rolf Aldag
Rolf Aldag, individual time trial Tour de France 2003
Personal information
Full nameRolf Aldag
Born (1968-08-25) 25 August 1968 (age 56)
Beckum, West Germany
Height1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight75 kg (165 lb; 11 st 11 lb)
Team information
Current teamTeam Qhubeka NextHash
DisciplineRoad
RoleDirecteur sportif
Professional teams
1991–1992Helvetia
1993–2005Team Telekom
Managerial teams
2006–2011T-Mobile Team
2014–Nov 2015Omega Pharma–Quick-Step
Nov 2015–2019MTN–Qhubeka
2020–Canyon–SRAM
Major wins
Germany National Champion (2000)

Rolf Aldag (born 25 August 1968) is a German former professional road bicycle racer who rode for Team Telekom from 1993 to 2005. He raced in 10 Tour de France, 1 Giro d'Italia and 5 Vuelta a España. Prior to joining Telekom, he raced with Helvetia. Beginning in 2020, Aldag works as directeur sportif for the Canyon–SRAM team. In 2007 Aldag admitted to doping by having used Erythropoietin (EPO) from 1995 to 1999.

Career

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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 Bayern-Rundfahrt 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 Bayern-Rundfahrt 2002, a 2nd stage place in the, winner of the Sparkassen-Giro Bochum in 2003, and winner of the Sparkassen Cup Unna in 2003.

Aldag featured in the film Hell on Wheels concerning the 2003 Tour de France.

In "retirement", Aldag set a goal of competing in Ironman triathlons. 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.

Aldag managed the team up the end of 2011 when HTC–Highroad folded due to lack of sponsorship.[1] Following the team's demise, Aldag spent a year working for the World Triathlon Corporation before taking up a role as a technical link-man between Specialized Bicycle Components and Omega Pharma–Quick-Step in 2013. In 2014 he became the Belgian team's Sport and Development Manager.[2] In November 2015 MTN–Qhubeka announced that Aldag had been appointed as the team's Performance Manager with immediate effect, linking up with 2016 signings Mark Cavendish, Mark Renshaw and Bernhard Eisel.[3] On 3 September 2019, the now renamed team Team Dimension Data announced that Aldag would leave at the end of the season.[4] On 9 December 2019, Canyon–SRAM announced Aldag as their new directeur sportif for the 2020 season.[5]

Doping confession

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Aldag (left) at the 2000 Rund um den Henninger Turm

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.[6]

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.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Aldag blasts UCI, McQuaid and pro cycling". 12 January 2012.
  2. ^ Friebe, Daniel (14 April 2015). "Cavendish fights back". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  3. ^ "Aldag links up with Cavendish at MTN-Qhubeka as performance manager". cyclingnews.com. 2 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  4. ^ "Rolf Aldag to part ways with Dimension Data at end of season". cyclingnews.com. 3 September 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  5. ^ "Rolf Aldag joins Canyon-SRAM after leaving Dimension Data". cyclingnews.com. 9 December 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  6. ^ Westemeyer, Susan (24 May 2007). "Zabel and Aldag confess EPO usage". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 24 May 2007.
  7. ^ Masseur wirft Team Telekom systematisches Doping vor Der Spiegel, 28 April 2007 (German)
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