Vienna – Austrian cyclist Bernhard Kohl announced his retirement on Monday in the wake of a doping ban.
“I don’t want to continue a double life which is based on lies. That’s why this is the end,” Kohl told a news conference.
Kohl, 27, tested positive for the latest generation of the blood booster EPO, known as CERA, in retests of samples gathered at the 2008 Tour de France in which he originally finished third.
He was banned for two years and has by now admitted to doping for several years and co-operated with the authorities in a criminal probe on doping in Austria.
“I doped by my own free will – in a system in which you can’t win without doping,” said Kohl. (dpa)