Cycling news - Austrian Georg Preidler admits to doping amid investigation

Austrian cyclist Georg Preidler on Monday admitted to cheating amid an investigation into blood doping that brought down five skiers at the Nordic skiing world championships last week.

Eurosport

Image credit: TNT Sports

Preidler, who rides for French elite team Groupama-FDJ, told the Kronen newspaper that he could not 'live with this secret any longer' after skiers from Austria, Kazakhstan and Estonia were arrested last Wednesday in anti-doping raids in the Austrian resort of Seefeld.

The FDJ-Groupama team told Reuters they would issue a statement later on Monday.

Preidler had now left Groupama-FDJ, the French outfit said in a statement on Monday, adding that the rider, who joined in 2018, had admitted having 'blood taken' that year.

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A 40-year-old sports doctor was believed to be at the centre of the organisation, police said last week.

"I made a doping confession (to the police)," the 28-year-old Preidler, a triple time-trial national champion, said.

Preidler, however, said that some of his best results, such as a third-place finish in a Giro d'Italia mountain stage in 2016, had been achieved clean.

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