Eligible to return to the sport in late August
Embattled cyclist Stefan Schumacher has said that he wishes to come back to the sport from his doping suspension as a “transparent athlete”, in an attempt to erase any doubts that he could be using banned substances. Schumacher was one of several cyclists that tested positive for CERA during the 2008 Tour de France, where he won the two time trial stages.
The following month traces of the product were found in his system at the Beijing Olympics, where he only managed to place thirteenth in the time trial. Schumacher appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and lost. He dropped initial efforts to go to Swiss federal court and attempt to overturn the CAS decision.
“The fact that the announcement of my comeback will not only produce positive reactions is something that I understand. The trust is used up,” Schumacher told Laola1.at.
Realizing he will have an uphill battle as he attempts to re-enter the sport, the German has said that he will work hard to earn back the public’s trust.
“I will try to do more through transparency and openness to make up for lost confidence and win back the sympathy,” he said.
Schumacher has always maintained his innocence in the matter, and said this time around he is planning to make his blood counts and other monitoring results available for public scruitiny.
The 2008 Tour wasn’t the first time that the German had been involved in doping controversy. In 2005 while racing for Shimano-Memory Corp (now Skil Shimano), he tested positive for Cathin, but was cleared by the Dutch federation. The federation had granted a theraputic use of Cathin for an attested allergy and he was cleared of the infraction on August 3, 2005.
He also had a brush with the anti-doping authorities just before his third place at the 2007 Road Cycling World Championships. He was found to have a hematocrit level of 50.5 percent, which normally would result in an automatic two-week ban, but Schumacher blamed it on diarrhea. A subsequent test was found to be under 50 percent and his urine sample from a doping control also came back negative.
The German’s positive test from the 2008 Tour de France was also quite controversial. The samples taken by anti-doping authorities had been stored at warm temperatures, and had been transported between Lausanne and Paris several times. During the shipment, the samples were not sealed and were clearly marked with his name. The French anti-doping agency AFLD, which was in charge of the 2008 Tour de France tests, occasionally addressed him as Michael Schumacher, the race car driver, in email communications.
He said last month that he’s been training intensively, and is ready to come back to the sport sooner rather than later. “I am fit and I am eager to race again,” he told teckbote.de.
The former Gerolsteiner rider has his sights set of finding a Pro Continental team to continue his career. He said that he is already in talks with several teams, and cleared up rumors that he was negotiating with the Acqua e Sapone team. “There is no discussion about this right now.”
“The timing is certainly not ideal tom find a team.” he said, admitting that trying to compete again this season is a bit ambitious. His aim is to ride the year’s final Grand Tour, the Vuelta a España, but having given up his legal fight to prove his innocence means that he could well find resistance in getting on a larger team. The Spanish race begins on August 28, which is the first day he would be eligible to race.