Frank Høj, a Danish former professional road cyclist, admitted to doping at the beginning of his career, but claimed he stopped in 1998 after the Festina drug scandal. He denied claims by Michael Rasmussen that he took some doping substances during the 2004 Olympic Games, in Athens.

"As a neo-professional, I regret to say that I tried EPO. I tried to take it. I probably did not take it in the amounts that were expected to produce results," he said on Danish TV 2 Sport television on Sunday. "Very naively, I had a notion that the sport changed after the Festina scandal and doping simply disappeared quietly out of it."

He added: "You can go in and look at my results in the period until the Festina scandal. They are not impressive. After the Festina scandal I never wanted to touch any."

Høj won the Danish national championship in 1998 and finished in the top ten in the road race at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games. He became a professional in 1995 and rode in the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana before retiring in 2010.