“We are currently studying in minute detail what I have eaten and drank prior to the inspection on July 14.”
Frank Schleck is facing a battle on his hands after the B sample of a urine sample on July 14th has also come back positive.
On Tuesday it was announced that the banned diuretic Xipamide RadioShack Nissan rider had been detected in the urine of the Luxembourg rider in a random doping control. He agreed to leave the race as a result, and said that he would have the B sample analysed.
That procedure has now been carried out and, according to a statement released by the rider, the outcome is the same. “The result of the counter test was positive but for me nothing changes: I just know that I did nothing wrong,” he said.
Schleck now faces a disciplinary hearing before Luxembourg’s cycling federation. That decision can subsequently go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if the judgement is disputed by any of the parties concerned.
Schleck denied all knowledge of the substance on Tuesday, saying that if his B sample was positive, that he would act further. “If this analysis confirm the initial result, complaints will be filed against an unknown person for poisoning,” he stated then.
It was unclear if the claim of poisoning would relate to a deliberate act of sabotage, or the contamination of a supplement.
However today he is taking a broader stance. “At the moment we are analysing, minute by minute, what exactly I have been doing, eating, drinking on the days before the control and on the 14th of July itself, whom I met, what materials I came in contact with, what nutritional supplements I took.”
Diuretics are regarded as so-called ‘specified substances’ by the World Anti Doping Agency and others. The classification means that detection of the substance might not lead to the same length ban as with more serious agents; Schleck faces a sanction ranging between a warning and a two year ban.
Diuretics can be used to mask more serious products, and so the disciplinary hearing will likely seek to determine if it could have been used intentionally.
Frank Schleck’s statement:
Today I received the result of the analysis of the B-sample in the AFLD-lab in Chatenay-Malabry.
The result of the counter test was positive but for me nothing changes: I just know that I did nothing wrong! I will therefore continue my search to find out how the banned substance could have entered my body.
At the moment we are analysing, minute by minute, what exactly I have been doing, eating, drinking on the days before the control and on the 14th of July itself, whom I met, what materials I came in contact with, what nutritional supplements I took.
The medical world states that this product, when performing in extreme conditions such as in a cycling tour, is very dangerous; it can even cause death.
Therefore I really need to find the cause that clarifies how this product ended up in my system.
Since I didn’t take anything, I assume it must have been given to me by someone, or it could have happened through an accidental contamination, or it could be caused by something that is not yet known to me since we are still undertaking a number of analyses.
Since these extra analyses will take a few days, I will communicate again from the moment I have received the results of the extra tests.