This is the confession of Dennis Galimzyanov. In this handwritten letter dated today the rider admits to his team that he took banned substances and waives his right to the B-sample being tested. He states that he acted alone, even using capital letters to help emphasise nobody from the Katusha team was involved.
Russian Denis Galimzyanov is one of the sprint revelations of the season so far. The 24 year old rider with Katusha was up there in the results right at the start of 2011 with placings in the Tour of Qatar and Oman before taking his first full win in the second stage of the Three Days of De Panne (note he’d won a TTT with Katusha in 2010) and took home the points jersey too.
Who is he? Well nobody knows. Katusha aren’t the most open of teams but this guy looks like someone you can’t ignore. I got curious and tracked down some info on him, giving myself a headache last night trying to recall my pidgin Russian to translate relevant info. For me at least it was worth it as it turns out he’s probably the only pro with classical piano skills. Plus he knows karate.