Denmark’s cross-country mountain bike champion Peter Riis Andersen, who was to compete in the Beijing Olympics, has failed a drugs test, the Danish sporting federation DIF said on Monday.
Andersen, 28, one of 84 Danish athletes selected to take part in the Games, tested positive for the banned blood booster EPO (erythroipoietin) in both the A and B tests.
The DIF have expelled him from the Olympic squad.
Andersen, who rides for the German Team ALB-GOLD, won the Danish championships on July 20 and had been hoping for a top 10 finish in the Olympics, which open on August 8.
Denmark’s anti-doping committee has carried out 163 tests on the country’s Olympic athletes so far. Andersen’s test, carried out on June 25, is the only positive.
Andersen admitted during a press conference he had “taken six EPO pills”. “My performance this spring was not up to an Olympic level and I was afraid of not making the team,” he said.