German cyclist Zabel admits doping in 1996

BONN: One of the top cyclists of the past 15 years, Erik Zabel of Germany, admitted on Thursday that he had taken the banned blood booster EPO while competing for German team Telekom in 1996.   

"I took EPO in 1996 but I stopped taking it after a week because of secondary effects," a visibly emotional Zabel told a press conference.   

"It was my only experience with doping in my whole career."   

Zabel, a 36-year-old sprinter, was a silver medallist in the 2006 world championships and has finished top of the points classification in the Tour de France six times.   

EPO, or erythropoietin, has been proven to boost endurance levels.   

Zabel's former Telekom colleague and the current manager of the T-Mobile team which succeeded Telekom, Rolf Aldag, admitted at the same press conference he had taken doping products between 1995 and 2002.   

The Telekom team was a major force in 1996, when one of its riders, Bjarne Riis of Denmark, won the Tour de France.   

One year later, German rider Jan Ullrich made it two Tour de France titles in two years for the Telekom team.   

The revelations are the latest doping scandal to rock the embattled sport of cycling.

The winner of the 2006 Tour de France, Floyd Landis of the United States, is currently fighting to try to keep his title in an arbitration hearing in New York after he tested positive for synthetic testosterone.