Cycling: Olympic champion Winokurow on 13.

Alexander Vinokourov (Kazakhstan) is due to meet on 13. The European Commission has decided to take the case to a court in Liège for suspected fraud. This was confirmed by a court spokesman of the French news agency AFP on Tuesday.

The 44-year-old Vinokourov, winner of the London 2012 gold medal, is accused of having played in the spring classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège on 25 March. In April 2010 illegal agreements were struck with Alexander Kolobnew (36) and 150,000 euros were paid to the Russians so that they could win. Kolobnew is also under investigation, both deny the accusations.

After Italian and Swiss media had initially reported on the incident, the UCI also intervened. The investigators apparently had unambiguous e-mails between Vinokourov and Kolobnev in which the two allegedly denied the fraud. In addition, there are alleged to have been two payments – one in excess of EUR 100,000 and one in excess of EUR 50,000.