Vienna – Vienna prosecutors said Monday that they had started criminal proceedings against cyclists Bernhard Kohl from Austria and Denmark’s Michael Rasmussen, as well as Austrian Nordic skier Christian Hoffmann, for allegedly running a blood doping operation.

The three are suspected of having invested in a blood centrifuge which they not only used for themselves but also made available to other athletes, Austrian news agency APA reported.

Hoffmann, who won a gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, denied the accusations.

“That’s absolute nonsense, that’s a smear campaign against me,” the Austrian daily Die Presse quoted him in its Monday edition, after his name was the first to be confirmed by prosecutors on Sunday.

Kohl has publicly admitted having used blood doping and having bought the machine together with others. He has been stripped of his third place in the 2008 Tour de France for using the blood booster CERA.

The cyclist’s former manager Stefan Matschiner was conditionally released on May 7 after several weeks of detention, as he was heavily implicated by Kohl. The centrifuge was found in Matschiner’s apartment in Budapest.

Rasmussen is currently banned for lying about his whereabouts at the 2007 Tour in connection with doping tests.

Blood doping is mainly used in endurance sports. Athletes are injected blood that has been enriched with performance-enhancing red blood cells. (dpa)