Dutchman makes revelations about a gloomy past.

The scandal involving the widespread use of doping on the former Rabobank team continues to unravel. In an interview scheduled to broadcast on NOS Sport on Wednesday night in Holland, former Rabobank anchorman and star rider, Michael Boogerd, will confess to using illegal performance enhancing drugs for a decade of his 14-year-career. Bits of the interview can be found on the website of the TV station as appetizers for tonight’s broadcast.

Lately Boogerd has been under tremendous pressure to account for his use of illegal substances, and in the interview he explains that he was aided by EPO, blood transfusions and cortisone between 1997 and 2007, the year that he ended his career.

Boogerd’s finest, or gloomiest, hours came when he claimed victory on two stages of the Tour de France, the 1999 Amstel Gold race, the 1999 Paris-Nice and was Dutch Road Champion in 1997, 1998 and 2006.

Now 40, Boogerd, somewhat bewilderingly, says that he never used drugs while racing the Tour de France. This may seem difficult to believe but Boogerd insists, "It was in periods, usually periods of training in preparation for competitions. I have always ridden the Tour clean."

The former Dutch champion realizes that some of the shine will now be reduced. "I realise that victory in the eyes of the public may now be infected."

Starting to illicitly using EPO in 1997, Boogerd soon understood that it was "too risky" and decided to move on to blood transfusions which were far more difficult to discover.

"At some point it [EPO] was going to be easier to detect, so I went looking for something else," Boogerd explained.

In the interview Boogerd steadfastly denies ever being in contact with reviled doctors Francesco Conconi, Michele Ferrari and Eufemiano Fuentes and refuses to reveal any accomplishes, insisting his decade of doping was a one man act. "I mention no names," Boogerd said. "I looked into it and then I searched myself. It was my responsibility, my choice."

Boogerd is the eighth former Rabobank employee to recently admit to doping, following the confessions of Danny Nelissen, Marc Lotz, Thomas Dekker, Levi Leipheimer, Michael Rasmussen, Grischa Niermann, and former manager Theo de Rooij.

The appetizers can be viewed on the NOS website:

http://nos.nl/artikel/481356-boogerd-bekent-dopinggebruik.html