Former Tour sprint champ Erik Zabel admits to extensive doping

Retired rider Erik Zabel has told a German newspaper he used banned substances including the blood-booster EPO and cortisone over several years of his career. Zabel, who won 12 Tour de France stages and earned the sprinter’s green jersey six times on the Tour, retired in 2008. The year before he retired, he said he briefly used EPO in 1996. [caption id=“attachment_993207” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Zabel, who won 12 Tour de France stages and earned the sprinter’s green jersey six times on the Tour, retired in 2008. Getty Images[/caption] In an interview with Germany’s daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung published Monday, Zabel said that was only “a small part of the truth” and he engaged in doping over “many years.” Zabel was quoted as saying that he never had a “structured doping plan.” But he added: “If you take it all together now — EPO, cortisone, then even blood doping — it’s a whole lot.” AP