German Erik Zabel admits to doping: report

Former German sprinter Erik Zabel has finally come clean about his use of EPO and other doping products.

German Erik Zabel admits to doping: report

Former German sprinter Erik Zabel admitted to using doping products including EPO from 1996 to 2004.

Former German sprinter Erik Zabel has admitted to having used doping products including EPO from 1996 to 2004, in an interview published on German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung's website.

He also admitted to blood doping and using cortisone.

Zabel's admission comes a few days after he was named in a French government report that identified cyclists who had tested positive for EPO during the 1998 Tour de France.

"EPO, cortisone and then even blood doping. It's really a lot," said Zabel, a six-time winner of the Tour de France's green jersey competition for best sprinter.

The 43-year-old, who retired in 2008, had previously admitted in 2007 to having taken EPO in 1996, although he said he had stopped using it after one week.

However, now he has finally come fully clean, explaining how he graduated from EPO to blood doping as detection methods improved.

"In 2003, I had a transfusion of my own blood," he added before explaining why he had previously lied about his doping past.

"First and foremost I wanted to preserve my life, the dream life of a professional cyclist.

"I loved it so much, the discipline, the travel. Basically, my selfishness was the strongest (thing)."

The inquiry by the French government commission into the effectiveness of the fight against doping decided to publish on Wednesday the results of samples from the 1998 and 1999 Tours that were retroactively tested for EPO in 2004.

In 1998 there wasn't an effective test for EPO so the drug went undetected.

Zabel, fellow sprinter Mario Cipollini as well as known dopers and former Tour winners Marco Pantini and Jan Ullrich were amongst the cyclists revealed to have used EPO in 1998.

Disgraced former seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong's samples from the 1999 Tour, the first one he won before later being stripped of all his titles, also tested positive for EPO.


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Source: AAP


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