Cyclist Zabel to Ride for Milram Despite Doping Confessions

Milram said the 36-year-old German Erik Zabel will be allowed to continue his contract with the team for the rest of this year, and is expected to take part in the Bavarian Tour beginning Wednesday.

Zabel admitted last Thursday to EPO blood doping in the 1990s while cycling for Germany's Team Telekom.

A Milram team statement said Zabel's contract, which runs until the end of 2008, will continue initially for the rest of this year and is then subject to a final legal review.

A decision will be made about whether the three-year contract will continue until the end of 2008.

Cycling's true tales

Zabel's doping admission followed earlier confessions from other riders and two doctors from Germany's most successful cycling team.

Zabel won the green jersey for best sprinter at the Tour de France six times.

He admitted to using EPO before the Tour de France in 1996, saying he stopped after a week due to side-effects.

Zabel was a team-mate of Danish rider Bjarne Riis and the German Jan Ullrich, who won the Tour de France in 1996 and 1997 for Team Telekom respectively.

Last Friday, Riis ended months of speculation by admitting he had used EPO, or erythropoietin -- a synthetic hormone that stimulates the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells -- in his 1996 Tour win.

Riis said he had used banned substances between 1993 and 1998 -- among the most successful years of his career.

Ullrich has repeatedly denied doping allegations and has made no statement in the wake of last week's doping admissions by seven former Telekom riders.

A headline in Germany's mass-circulation newspaper Bild summarized the cycling situation: "Jan, we no longer need your confession." The report said evidence against Ullrich now appeared to be overwhelming.