Former pro rider Nicki Sørensen, now sports director for WorldTour team Israel Startup Nation, told Danish media that she is "ashamed" of her doping past.

The Dane, who won stage victories at the 2009 Tour de France and the 2005 Vuelta a España and spent most of his career with the Bjarne Riis-led CSC team, later known as Saxo Bank and Tinkoff, retired after the 2014 season, He admitted to doping in 2015.

"It happened early in my career, more than 10 years ago," he said at the time.

But on Saturday, during an appearance on Danish channel TV2's program "Tour de ja-vu," Sørensen opened up further about his past.

"I am ashamed of what happened," the 45-year-old said. I felt a little bit like a victim at the time, but I still chose to do that [dope]."

"When I became a professional cyclist, it was clear that there was a general culture of cyclists doping. I had been told by professional cyclists that that was the way it was. It was the only way. And I made the hard choice to jump on that wagon," Sailensen said, also repeating what he said in 2015, namely that he had been doping from the start of his career until "around 2004."

Sailensen, who now serves as director sportif at Israel Startup Nation, said he feels as though he is in a position to advise athletes that the path of doping is not the way to go.

"What is my position as sports director in cycling today? I feel I can show young people that doping is not the way to go.