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Berlin - Former Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich suggested vaguely on Wednesday that he was part of cycling's past doping culture but that he would not make a public admission similar to that of Lance Armstrong and others.
"Everyone can get an idea what happened in cycling in the past, and I did my share to it," Ullrich said in a blog on the website of broadcasters Eurosport.
Ullrich said that while Armstrong and others chose to admit to doping because "it was the right thing to do for them," he was taking a different approach.
"I chose a path after my conviction under sporting laws that not everyone understands, but which is the right one for me. My active career dates back almost 10 years, all that counts for me and my family is the future," he said.
"I will cope with the issue myself instead of possibly dragging those people and sponsors, who supported me during my career, into it."
Ullrich was banned for two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for two years from 2011 onwards for his involvement with Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, and stripped of all results since May 1, 2005.
The affair broke in 2006 and Ullrich retired in early 2007. The 1997 Tour winner has never made a full doping confession like some of his former team-mates or Armstrong, who admitted to using the blood booster EPO and other substances after being stripped of his seven Tour titles from 1999 to 2005.
Ullrich said that cycling has cleaned up and should look ahead but also voiced "concern about the role of race organisers" of especially the big races like the Tour and the Giro d'Italia who are making their events more and more difficult to contest.
