STEFAN SCHUMACHER REPORTED POSITIVE FOR AMPHETAMINES

Unconfirmed website reports have said that German cycling has received the umpteenth blow to its credibility as news broke that Stefan Schumacher has tested positive for amphetamine use in a police drug-driving test.

The Gerolsteiner rider failed a drug-driving test on October 7 when Schumacher had crashed his car into a garden post. He initially drove off before returning to the scene of the accident.

A bronze medallist in the 2007 World Championships, Classic specialist Schumacher?s result provided some consolation for the German authorities following a welter of anti-doping stories during the event themselves.

However, this latest development will do nothing but harm to professional cycling in Germany, and will not help Schumacher?s team, Gerolsteiner, find a new sponsor for 2009.

Given this is not a conventional positive anti-doping test, Schumacher will not himself be banned from racing. But the German?s reputation - already suspect following a failed doping test in 2005 (from which he was cleared) - will now be further tarnished.

?I don?t know how this could have happened,? Schumacher claimed. ?I know that?s not a good defence, but the only thing I know for sure is that I have never consciously taken banned drugs.?

RELATED LINKS

CW's encyclopedia of doping