VIENNA, Austria — Austrian cyclist Bernhard Kohl accepted a two-year ban Wednesday for using the blood booster CERA at last year’s Tour de France.
The third-place finisher at the Tour said he would not appeal the ban, handed down in November by Austria’s anti-doping agency.
The agency gave Kohl a two-year ban Nov. 24. The penalty could have been reduced had he fully cooperated with the anti-doping authorities. While Kohl cooperated, he refused to disclose the identity of his supplier.
“I had hoped that the penalty for a cooperative athlete would not be the same as for an uncooperative one,” Kohl said in a statement on his Web site.
Kohl admitted last fall that he used CERA, which is the latest version of the endurance-boosting hormone EPO.
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