Jef d'Hont, who worked from 1992-96 as a massage therapist for Team Telekom, now known as T-Mobile. He said he never gave Ullrich a blood-boosting EPO shot in Germany _ only once at an undisclosed race in France.

"In Germany I never administered EPO, not to Jan Ullrich, and not to other cyclists," he said in Sunday editions of the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "I was not the main therapist for Jan Ullrich.

"Only once in France, I administered the shot. I injected it into his arm, it lasted about 10 seconds _ like giving insulin to a diabetic patient."

D'Hont has written a book alleging that two doctors on the cycling team gave EPO shots to riders.

His claims come days after several former Team Telekom riders _ including Erik Zabel, Rolf Aldag and 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis _ admitted they used EPO during the 1990s.