BERLIN: Former sprint specialist Erik Zabel was suspended by Russian cycling team Katusha after he admitted to persistent doping during his cycling career.
Zabel, widely regarded as one of the sport’s finest sprinters, said he had consistently used banned substances and methods to enhance his performance, ending years of insisting he had only briefly experimented with the blood booster EPO in 1996.
“Russian team Katusha announces the suspension of the sprinter group coach Erik Zabel after new facts about doping during his cycling career having been revealed in news reports,” it said in a statement.
The 43-year-old Zabel, whose son is also a professional rider, was a coach on the Katusha team specialising in sprint training.
In an interview published in Monday’s edition of Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the German, who topped the points classification of the Tour six times before his retirement in 2008, said he had used banned drugs and illegal methods, including EPO, cortisone and blood doping, from 1996 until 2003. REUTERS
