BERLIN, May 24 (UPI) -- One of Germany's greatest cyclists admitted Thursday that he briefly used a banned blood boosting substance in the 1990s.
Erik Zabel wept during an appearance on German television in which he made the admission, the BBC reported.
"I took EPO in 1996 but I stopped after a week because of secondary effects," he said. "It was my only experience with doping in my whole career."
Rolf Aldag, who was with Zabel on the Telekom team and is now the team's sporting director, said that he used the hormone Erythropoietin, commonly called EPO, between 1995 and 2002.
Three other members of the team, Udo Boelts, Bert Dietz and Christian Henn, admitted this week that they had used banned substances. Two former Telekom doctors have acknowledged administering the drug to cyclists.
Zabel won a silver medal in the 2006 World Championships and topped the points classification in the Tour de France six times.
