Rome - Cycling star Riccardo Ricco admitted to doping Wednesday in a hearing in front of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) which was called following his failed dope test at this year's Tour de France. "I take full responsibility, it was my mistake," he told CONI. "I had a huge burden to carry and I wanted to relieve myself of it."
Ricco, who won two stages of this year's Tour and was considered one of the top young riders before testing positive for the blood- booster EPO, apologised to his fans for his actions.
"I am now a false idol. At the moment I have no desire to get back on a bike," said the 24-year-old former Saunier Duval rider, who was immediately sacked from his team after testing positive.
Ricco was detected with traces of CERA (Continuous Erythropietin Receptor Activator) in his body after the fourth stage of the race, on July 8. He has decided against calling for his B-sample to be tested and now faces a two-year ban.
The heating and air-conditioning firm Saunier Duval subsequently announced that it was ceasing sponsoring the cycling team after team leader Ricco's positive test for CERA,a so-called third-generation version of EPO - a protein hormone produced by the kidney which stimulates the production of red blood cells.
Spain's Manuel Beltran, Moises Duenas and Dimitri Fofonov also failed dope tests during this year's Tour which was won by Carlos Sastre.
However, Ricco denied that he had been doped when taking second spot in this year's Giro d'Italia.
"Before the Tour, I always won with my legs. After the Giro, I was physically and psychologically very tired so I used EPO," he said
"At the moment, I am also thinking about my team and my team-mates who have all lost their jobs because of me."
Ricco revealed that he was tested several times on the Tour but that only two had returned positive results.
"Obviously, the test procedure isn't 100-per-cent certain," he said.
