….admits to using performance-enhancing drugs
Bjarne Riis, the 1996 winner of the Tour de France, admitted Friday that he used EPO, a performance-enhancing drug, from 1993 to 1998.
Riis has consistently denied using performance-enhancing drugs, most recently in August 2006. With his statement today, he becomes the first rider to admit being drugged when winning the gruelling three-week Tour de France.
‘I was rider in the period that is being debated right now. I have done things I regret. I took EPO and it was a part of my day.’
Riis added though using using the drug made him an unworthy Tour de France winner, he said that ‘the experience and the memories’ of being a champion cyclist will stay with him forever. ‘You can’t change the past. What I want to do is change the future. I will fight for that.’
Now the owner of Team CSC, Riis told reporters that the reason for coming forward today was to shield his riders from the intensifying media speculation over whether he had used EPO. ’I am doing this to make sure that the hard work I have done for the team isn’t interfered with.’
More riders to come?!
