Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco' on Wednesday admitted to taking EPO in the run-up to the recent Tour de France, where he tested positive for the substance and was thrown off the race.
Ricco', 24, told Italian anti-doping authorities that he decided on his own to take the banned blood-booster and said no one else was involved.
''It was my mistake, mine alone. I still think about the team and I'm sorry if guys lost their jobs because of me''.
The team's sponsor, French heating appliance giant Saunier Duval, pulled out of cycling after the case.
Ricco', who had won two stages with mountain breakaways, was ejected from the Tour at the start of the 12th stage and briefly detained under France's new anti-doping laws.
French authorities said traces of a 'third generation' of EPO called 'Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator' (CERA) were found in his blood after the Tour's first time trial - the same substance also found in three Spanish riders.
Ricco' faces a two-year ban from the Italian Olympic Committee and could face criminal charges in France.
After finishing second in the Giro d'Italia and his feats in the Tour Ricco' was being tipped as a potential heir to Italian cycling's greatest recent climber, Marco Pantani.
Some fans had already started calling him 'the Pirate', the nickname of the bandana-clad Pantani who did the Giro-Tour double in 1998 before doping woes and cocaine use led to his death from a cocaine overdose in 2004.
The Italian cycling world was shocked by the news of Ricco's positive test.
The Italian Association of Professional Riders said riders like Ricco' ''jeopardise the image of the sport and the interests of the majority of riders committed to the fight against the doping mafia''.
The president of the International Cycling Union, Pat McQuaid, called the case ''absolutely shocking''.
The head of the Italian Olympic Committee's Sports Medicine Institute, Antonio Dal Monte, said the effects of CERA ''could be more dramatic'' than EPO, which strains the heart and carries a high risk of thrombosis.
Ricco's case was the latest doping-related blow to cycling after 2006 Tour winner Floyd Landis was stripped of his title, the 2007 winner Ivan Basso was banned for two years and last year's favourites Alexandre Vinokourov and Michael Rasmussen were expelled from the race.
Other top riders to be hit by doping allegations include Jan Ullrich, winner of the 1997 Tour, and Danilo Di Luca, winner of the 2007 Giro d'Italia.
Retired cycling star and current team manager Bjarne Riis last year admitted he used EPO in 1996, when he won the Tour.
Sprint star Erik Zabel has also admitted using it.
