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Zabel loses two green jerseys in one day

Published: Jul. 13, 2007

Germany’s veteran sprinter Erik Zabel (Milram) had not one but two Tour de France green jerseys taken from him Friday before stage 6 even finished.

He lost the first — his overall best sprinter title from 1996 — when Tour de France authorities announced they were revoking it because of Zabel’s admission this May to use of the banned blood-booster EPO that year.

He lost the second — the current green jersey of the 2007 Tour de France sprint competition — on the road today after Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) scored points at two intermediate sprints and the final to overtake him in the competition.

Zabel was unavailable for comment on the Tour decision after the race, but this morning he spoke to VeloNews about the 2007 green jersey competition.

“It’s a nice present,” he said of the garment he captured the day before. “But Tom Boonen is so close behind me that in my eyes it means nothing.”

Zabel’s 1996 jersey was the first of six consecutive sprinter titles he won at the Tour, where his record of 12 stage wins for an active rider was recently tied by Australian Robbie McEwen (Predictor-Lotto).

On the heels of other admissions from racers on the former T-Mobile pro team, Zabel in May admitted that he had briefly used EPO, but stopped because of the ill effects he felt.

There was no EPO test in place for pro cycling until 2001.

Tour officials recently pulled the overall Tour de France winner title from Zabel’s 1996 teammate Bjarne Riis, who won that year and also recently confessed to using EPO during his career.

Neither revocation has yet gone into the race’s official documentation.