Erik Zabel will ride into retirement in Sunday’s 102nd edition of Paris-Tours in what will be the German’s last race as a professional.

Zabel, 38, announced his retirement ahead of the Varese world championships, where he crossed the line arm-in-arm with Paolo Bettini, another riding retiring at the end of the 2008 season.

Zabel is a three-time winner of what’s considered the sprinter’s classic, first taking the flowers in 1994 in what was his first major victory.

Zabel also won Paris-Tours in 2003 and 2005, becoming just the fourth rider to tie the record of three wins. Gustaf Daneels, Paul Mayé and Guido Reybroeck also each won three Paris-Tours.

Zabel will head the Milram team that is without last year’s winner, Alessandro Petacchi, who was fired by the German team after testing positive too high levels of Salbutamol, an asthma treatment that Petacchi had permission to use.

Petacchi won’t be back to defend his title because his new team, LPR Brakes, has been sidelined because it has not been participating in the biological passport program installed this season to combat doping.

Zabel commenced his final season back at the Tour of the Algarve in February in Portugal. He started and completed all three grand tours (a feat matched only by Marzio Bruseghin in 2008), but his lone win came at the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana in February.

He was second in his final German race at the Münsterland Giro on Oct. 3.

With nearly 200 victories, Zabel boasts a palmares with more wins than any active rider.

His legacy was tainted when he admitted in 2007 that he dabbled with the banned blood booster EPO in 1996 as part of the Telekom team. Zabel said he used EPO only for one week and never tried it again. His Milram team did not suspend or fire him for the doping confession from a decade ago.

Milram for 102nd Paris-Tours
Andrey Grivko (Ukr), Brett Lancaster (Aus), Fabio Sabatini (Ita), Enrico Poitschke (Ger), Erik Zabel (Ger), Marco Velo (Ita), Martin Velits (Svk), Sebastian Schwager (Ger)