A new report, broadcast Friday evening by the German television consortium ARD, reignites the spotlight on doping in sports, particularly in cycling.

It all starts with Operation Aderlass, which in February 2019 first shocked the Nordic skiing world and then the cycling world. The documentary, titled "Behind the Scenes of Doping", stems from the words of Munich Chief Prosecutor Kai Gräber, who personally handled the Aderlass case. According to Gräber, no further investigations were conducted against about 20 suspects, and it is possible that the facts can no longer be prosecuted because they have reached or are close to the statute of limitations.

In particular, there is talk of a person operating within the Ineos team (a person who refused to respond, just as the British team decided not to comment) who would have introduced to Dr. Mark Schmidt, a central figure in the entire investigation - criminally convicted and struck off the medical register - a dealer whose name is never mentioned, only the nickname Mister Baltazar. Through this figure, those involved would have purchased prohibited substances such as Aicar and TB500, but the chat logs attached to the criminal trial also mention forbidden equipment, ostensibly intended exclusively for medical institutes.

According to a direct witness, who filed a sworn statement, Aicar - which had been much discussed around 2010 - would still be widely used in the peloton: it is an endogenous metabolic activator that, when used in its synthetic form, allows increasing muscle energy and reduces fatigue.

While it is true that Aicar has been on the list of prohibited substances for years now, in the documentary nutritionist Oliver Catlin, a doping expert, demonstrated how a simple internet search allowed him to find 166 Aicar-like preparations, of which only 4 are on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned list.

In addition to Aicar, the witness also talks about EPO, a substance that has not gone out of fashion and would still be used in the peloton with microdosing techniques.

"Believing that nothing prohibited has happened at the Tour de France from 2015 (the year of the last positive test during the race, moreover a positive test for cocaine use, judged as unintentional doping, ed.) until today is ridiculous," explains a former professional cyclist, also protected by anonymity: "The fact is that many people are afraid to speak. I know some cyclists wanted to testify but stopped when they received death threats."