Holm says today's riders have a different view on doping

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Brian Holm has admitted that doping was a widely accepted, everyday activity back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when he was riding as a pro cyclist but insisted that riders' attitudes have changed greatly, with doping now being the exception, rather than the rule.

He knew nothing about doping when he turned pro in 1986. “But then you heard more about it and eventually it became so commonplace that we thought that it wasn't banned any more,” Danish website spn.dk reported him as saying.

“Many of my generation will still have to say that they never doped, and I even argued that for a long time because no one thought it really true. I actually think that I could have gone through a lie detector test when I stopped because I was convinced I was clean. It was not until some years later that I came to the realization that it was probably not that way. It was such a big part of your everyday life."

Holm rode professionally for 12 years, spending his final five years at Team Deutsche Telekom. He has since confessed to having used EPO at the 1995 Tour de France. Since 2003 he has worked as a directeur sportif with Telekom/T-Mobile and then later at Team Columbia and HTC-Columbia.

The Dane now sees more self-discipline amongst riders today than when he was a rider. "During my time as a rider there were rumors about those who had never used anything, but I never got to meet any of them. Today it is just the opposite. Now one hears rumors about those who do (use doping)."

“The new generation of riders look down on those who use drugs as if they were a bunch of criminals. They simply do not like them."