Following the admission that, rather than trying EPO once in 1996, he in fact doped for the majority of his racing career, former German sprinter Erik Zabel has resigned from both the Professional Cycling Council (CCP) and his role at the Cyclassics WorldTour race in Hamburg. The 43-year-old East-Berliner, who won a record six green jerseys at the Tour de France spoke to current International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid today to express his “deep regret for having lied for so long about taking performance enhancing substances.”
The CCP represents the interests of riders, teams and race organisers to the UCI management committee. Zabel is one of five members to have been nominated by the UCI itself, along with Rocco Cattaneo, Roger Legeay, Ramon Mendiburu and Stephen Roche.
While stating that “cycling is now in a cleaner era”, Zabel recognised that “he is no longer the right person to be a part of the Professional Cycling Council” as he offered his resignation to McQuaid.
Meanwhile, Rad-Net.de - the website for the German Cycling Federation (BDR) - has reported that Zabel has also quit his role with the Vattenfall Cyclassics WorldTour race, run in Hamburg, Germany.
"We spoke on the phone with Erik Zabel during the weekend,” Reinald Achilles, representative of Upsolut Sports told the German news agency dpa. “In the conversation he offered to resign his post as sport director. We have accepted his offer.”
Although his current association with the race has come to an end, however, Achilles refused to rule out a return for the veteran rider.
"We can imagine working together with Erik Zabel on another level in the future," he said.
Having resigned from two of his positions there has, as yet, been no word from the Katusha team, for whom Zabel is a sprint coach.