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Schumacher's Olympic b-sample confirms CERA

published 7 July 2009

German insists he is innocent, takes case to CAS

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Teammates Stefan Schumacher and 'Tin-Tin' Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner). (Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)

German Stefan Schumacher has been declared positive for EPO-CERA in the B-analysis from his 2008 Olympic Games sample. The second check has confirmed the presence of the blood boosting drug found in his A-sample in April of this year, AFP reported Tuesday.

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The rider of the former Gerolsteiner squad tested positive for the same substance in samples taken during the 2008 Tour de France, just weeks before the Beijing Games. Both positives were the result of re-testing of samples performed months after the respective events.

The urine test for the new variant of the drug EPO were first used during the July, 2008 Tour de France when Italian Riccardo Ricco' was the first to be declared positive for the substance. At that time, Schumacher's samples were considered suspicious, but were not confirmed as positive until October, when the French anti-doping agency (AFLD) analyzed blood samples from the Tour.

The AFLD case resulted in Schumacher receiving a two-year suspension in March of this year, just weeks before the re-analysis of the Olympic Games samples were announced.

In April, Schumacher and with fellow cyclist Davide Rebellin were among five athletes to be declared positive for CERA after the additional testing. Weight-lifter Yudelquis Contreras of the Dominican Republic was later cleared after his B-sample came back negative.

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Schumacher will be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland on Wednesday. His lawyer, Michael Lehner, has been working with the attorneys of the other athletes to pursue a consistent defense argument.

Lehner said that the Chatenay Malabry laboratory made procedural mistakes in testing the samples, and argued that the IOC had the B-samples tested without permission and without allowing Schumacher to have a witness present at the testing.