COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Retired Danish cyclist Bjarne Riis admitted Friday that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his 1996 Tour de France victory.
"I have taken doping. I have taken EPO,'' Riis said at a televised news conference. "I have made errors and I would like to apologize.''
Riis said he used the substances from 1993 to 1998, including during his Tour victory.
Riis said he no long considered himself a worthy winner of the Tour, and indicated he would be willing to give back the title.
"My jersey is at home in a cardboard box,'' he said. "They are welcome to come and get it. I have my memories for myself.''
Riis said he didn't suffer any side effects from EPO, a blood-boosting hormone.
"The only effect I had was that I rode faster,'' he said.
Riis said he also used cortisone and human growth hormone.
His confession came a day after Eric Zabel and Rolf Aldag, two Germans who were support riders for Riis on the Telekom team, admitted using performance-enhancing drugs while riding for the team in the 1990s. They said they took EPO -- or erythropoietin -- a synthetic hormone that stimulates the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells.
"Now time has come to put the cards on the table,'' Riis said as he calmly read a statement before a packed news conference. "I have done things which I have regretted.''
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme could not immediately be reached for comment on Riis's admission. It is up to the sport's governing body, the UCI, not Tour organizers, to rule whether a rider can keep a Tour de France title. There was no immediate comment from the UCI.
Riis is now the manager of Danish Team CSC, which recently launched what it described as the most rigorous anti-doping program in cycling. Riis said he would remain with the team, adding he hoped his confession would let the riders focus on the future instead of on media speculation about his past.
"I did this for the sake of the team, so the team can continue,'' he said.
Riis's admission came as 2006 Tour winner Floyd Landis awaited a ruling in his doping case. Landis, who tested positive for synthetic testosterone, could be stripped of his title and banned from cycling for two years if found guilty. An arbitration panel considered his case in a nine-day hearing that ended this week.
Fellow Dane Brian Holm, another former member of the Telekom team, also confirmed Thursday he had taken EPO.
Riis, the only Dane to have won the Tour de France, has been a national hero in the small Nordic country with a cycling tradition. Until now, he has repeatedly denied taking performance enhancing drugs during his 14-year career as a professional cyclist.
In a July 1998 interview, Riis gave an indirect answer when asked if he had taken drugs.
"I have never been tested positive,'' he said.
A year later, a Danish television documentary claimed that high haematocrit levels were found in a blood test taken from Riis in 1997, implying he was taking EPO.
In 2000, Riis quit professional cycling under doctors' orders because of a knee injury.
Former Telekom massage therapist Jef d'Hont earlier this month said in a book that two doctors gave EPO to some of the team's top riders, including Riis and Jan Ullrich, who won the Tour de France in 1997.
Riis joined the German Telekom cycling team in 1996. He previously rode for Lucas, Toshiba, Super U, Castorama, Ariostea and Gewiss-Ballan.
The top three finishers at the 1996 Tour have all been linked to doping -- and two have confessed.
Ullrich was runner-up, and Frenchman Richard Virenque was third.
Ullrich retired in February after being implicated in Operation Puerto, the Spanish investigation into an alleged blood doping ring. Last month, German authorities matched Ullrich's DNA sample to blood bags seized in Spain. He has always denied doping.
Virenque was kicked out of the 1998 Tour de France because of his involvement in the Festina scandal. His Festina team was ejected from the Tour after customs officers found a large stash of performance-enhancing drugs in a team car.
After denying doping, Virenque later admitted to it in a tearful court confession.