German prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz, who tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone before the Tour de France.
Joerg Schindler, from the state justice ministry, said the Bonn district attorney's office is following up on an anonymous complaint filed in June against the cyclist.
Sinkewitz, who tested positive in training on June 8, was accused of "fraud or damages against his contract partners" in the complaint.
In Germany, anyone can file a complaint, which prosecutors are obligated to investigate if found reasonable.
The investigation against 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich also was started through a fraud complaint filed by a German professor with no direct ties to the case.
Ullrich has retired, but prosecutors have linked his DNA sample to a blood bag found in the Madrid clinic suspected of providing top riders with doping services.
Sinkewitz was suspended this week by T-Mobile following confirmation that his initial A sample was positive for testosterone.
B sample
He has asked for his backup B sample to be tested, and Germany's Cycling Federation said Friday the results should be known by July 29.
If the second sample is positive, Sinkewitz faces being fired by his team
and could receive a two-year ban from the sport.
His positive test prompted German public TV stations ZDF and ARD on
Wednesday to drop their coverage of the Tour "until further notice."
Private Sat-1 television picked up the coverage a day later.
Sponsors
Sinkewitz's case, which came after efforts to clean up cycling with
stiffer tests and punishments, may have repercussions among sponsors too, especially in Germany, the Tour's second largest market.
Gerolsteiner, which sponsors a team, and Skoda, an official Tour de France sponsor, have said they will review their commitment to cycling after this year's tour is over.
Sinkewitz started in the Tour de France, which began in London on July 7, but dropped out after colliding with a spectator after stage 8 on Sunday.
Sinkewitz was tested with four other Telekom riders during a training camp in the Pyrenees. One of the five cyclists was Linus Gerdemann, who won a stage at the Tour.
Germany's National Anti-Doping Agency said it usually takes up to four
weeks for a lab to examine a sample and that the result of Sinkewitz's test became known Monday.
The agency then informed the German cycling federation.