I stopped watching the Tour de France when I started really wondering if the winners were taking performance-enhancing drugs. At one point it became clear to me that performance-enhancing drugs were so pervasive there was no way to win without doping.
Agence France Presse wrote:
Riis confesses to having doped in winning Tour
By Agence France Presse
This report filed May 25, 2007
Bjarne Riis, winner of the 1996 Tour de France, admitted Friday that he had taken the banned blood-boosting drug EPO while competing for the German team Telekom.
"I have taken banned substances, I have taken EPO. I bought it and took it myself," he said, Riis said at a press conference, adding that team doctors bore no responsibility for his actions.
"It is ultimately the cyclists themselves who must take responsibility," he said.
Riis said he took EPO from 1993 until 1998, including the 1996 season when he won the Tour de France.
Asked if he was a worthy Tour de France winner, Riis replied: "No, I am not."
However, he added that he was "a rider at a time when those were the conditions." EPO was said to be rife in the professional peloton during the 1990s, when there was still no test able to detect its use by riders.
"My jersey is at home in a cardboard box," he said. "They are welcome to come and get it. I have my memories for myself."
The Telekom team was a major force in 1996, and in 1997 when Jan Ullrich won the Tour de France yellow jersey.
Since the fall-out of a recent doping affair surrounding Ullrich, who is now retired, the team which is now known as T-Mobile has undergone a thorough clean-out of staff and riders connected with those 'doping years.'
Several of Riis's former Telekom teammates this week confessed to using banned substances, including one of the top cyclists of the past 15 years, Erik Zabel of Germany, as well as Rolf Aldag, Bert Dietz, Christian Henn and Udo Bölts.
Riis said he didn't want to speculate if any other riders from his period had used banned substances.
"No idea, it was possible," he said.
He added that his experience of using EPO left him believing that it did not work as a miracle tonic to riders with no talent.
"You can take as much as you want but if you don't have talent you can't win anything. I had some talent," he insisted. "There's a tendency in cycling today to confess the mistakes of the past. I find that hard to understand. I have put my own past behind me."
While admitting his guilt, Riis said he remained proud of his cycling achievements.
"I am proud of my results as a rider and an owner," he said.
The Dane said he decided to admit publicly to the doping for the sake of his current team, CSC.
"I'm doing this for my team, my team backs me 100 percent. Speaking out was necessary as there was so much speculation and I was using so much time and energy on the matter and my team needs me," he said.