Sentjens confesses EPO use and retires

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Roy Sentjens (Milram) has confessed to EPO use and announced his retirement from cycling with immediate effect. The Belgian returned a non-negative test for EPO on August 16. After initially denying any wrongdoing, Sentjens issued a lengthy statement on his personal website, in which he admitted doping and offered some explanations for his actions.

“I haven’t asked for an analysis of the B-sample, because I know what it contains,” Sentjens said. “I want to say sorry to those who believed in me.”

Sentjen’s Milram team already looked set to fold at the end of the season and he blamed the pressures of seeking a contract for next season for his use of EPO.

“My season had been a disaster, I did everything but I couldn’t get it right,” wrote Sentjens. “I couldn’t sleep anymore, because I was thinking all the time about how I could improve. I did everything, but even that did not help, and I fell into a depression.”

Sentjens failed to gain any significant results in 2010, which his best performance coming at the Tour of Austria, when he was 9th on stage 1.

“I wanted a contract. I have a son, a new house, a car and I wanted to start a new life” he said. “I made a mistake. In a instant, I just stepped into my car, drove to Barcelona and parked in the city centre. I went was ready to go around the pharmacies where I might find EPO. At the second one, I had what I needed.”

When Sentjens was tested on August 16, he was resigned to the inevitable. “I immediately knew what was going to happen,” he said. “I thus definitively declare that I’m putting an end to my career as a professional cyclist.”