"Give back jersey" Riis

World cycling chiefs on Friday called for Denmark's only winner of the Tour de France, Bjarne Riis, to hand back the yellow jersey he won in 1996.

Riis, the current manager of the CSC team, ended years of speculation over his involvement in doping by admitting Friday he had used the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin) between 1993 and 1998 while racing with Telekom.

Because his offence happened over eight years ago, Riis, in accordance with World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) rules, would not normally be forced to hand back his prize of the fabled yellow jersey.

However the International Cycling Union (UCI) said Riis should hand back his coveted prize and make a symbolic gesture which could reinforce the sport's fight against the drugs cheats.

"Despite the rules laid down by the World Anti Doping Agency, the UCI calls on Bjarne Riis to hand back his yellow jersey, which is a symbol of his victory," the UCI said in a statement released here at the Tour of Italy.

Several of Riis's former Telekom teammates this week confessed to using banned substances, including one of the top cyclists of the past 15 years, Erik Zabel of Germany, as well as Rolf Aldag, Bert Dietz, Christian Henn and Udo Boelts.

Cycling, and the strict, unwritten rules which govern the behaviour of the peloton, has often been controlled by a law of silence - which is very rarely broken.

However the UCI feels events this week provide the perfect opportunity for those who have sinned in the past to repent, and help put the sport back on a more positive footing.

"The admissions from Germany and Denmark show that today people are prepared to stand up and speak out, which is extremely positive, and the UCI calls on all other riders and their entourage who have been involved in doping to speak out," the statement added.

"Even though events in the past and present may go against us, there is now real determination from those involved in cycling to make major changes."

Having survived the Festina scandal on the 1998 Tour de France, the 'Operation Puerto' affair uncovered, in May 2006, an alleged doping and blood doping network based in Madrid, where it was run by a Spanish doctor, Eufemiano Fuentes.

After months of denials, Italian cycling star Ivan Basso - a former leader with Riis's CSC team until his sacking last autumn - recently admitted he was implicated in the affair and he is now waiting to be sanctioned.

Events in Germany, following the publication of a damaging book, appear to have prompted the string of admissions from former Telekom team staff.

Asked by a journalist if he was a worthy Tour de France winner, Riis replied: "No, I am not."

However, he added that he was "a rider at a time when those were the conditions." EPO was said to be rife in the professional peloton during the 1990s, when there was still no test able to detect its use by riders.

Tour de France chief Christian Prudhomme meanwhile said Riis's admission should lead to the Dane quitting cycling altogether.

"Bjarne Riis said it himself. He does not deserve to have won the Tour de France, because he cheated. He has left a black mark on the Tour de France," Prudhomme told AFP.

"Is this someone who should be leading a cycling team? He was the manager of Ivan Basso last year when Basso was in contact with Fuentes. Is there a link?

"I would like to have the answers to these questions," added the Frenchman, who, like the UCI, has called on others to repent to help save the sport.

"People have to speak out. We have to pull together to save this wonderful sport."

Spaniard Carlos Sastre, CSC's main hope for the yellow jersey this July, defended his team manager: "I have total faith in Bjarne, and he has all my support.

"He has made mistakes in the past, but since then he has fought hard to show the younger riders coming through the values of determination, training and sacrifice.

"It's a difficult time for Bjarne right now, but I want to say that despite what other people might believe, this team owes a lot to him."

AFP