Suspended sentence for former Tour winner

Sep 14, 2017 - 6:08 PM A Swiss court has handed down a suspended 21-month prison sentence against former German cyclist Jan Ullrich, finding him guilty of causing an accident in a heavily drunk and medicated state.

The court in the town of Weinfelden also sentenced the Tour de France winner to a fine of 10,000 Swiss francs ($13,000).

No one was injured when the Tour de France winner had crashed into two other cars in Switzerland in May 2014, but tests after the incident showed sleep medicine as well as high levels of alcohol in his blood.

Ullrich was driving at more than 130 km/h, exceeding the speed limit by more than 50 km/h.

"The limits are the same for everyone, whether he is a top athlete or a normal person," the judge said as she explained the verdict, according to an online report by the Blick newspaper.

Ullrich accepted the verdict and sentence.

He won the Tour in 1997 and was later linked with the doping scandal involving Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes in 2006, prompting his retirement from cycling.

He was retroactively banned for two years in 2012 and subsequently admitted to doping.

Source: AAP