Cobblers!

[Andrew G]

Not what you'd expect of a Gerolsteiner rider.

[quote]Stefan Schumacher In Deep S#$@
Recent third place finisher at the World Championships, Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) has had a rough time of it lately, with things only getting worse this week. After the World Championships it was revealed that he had ‘irregular blood levels’ in two out-of-competition tests before the Worlds, which were explained by Schumacher suffering from diarrhoea at the time. After his diarrhoea cleared up Schumacher was retested with no problems, but this may not be good enough for Germany’s politicians with Sports Minister Peter Danckert calling for an investigation of his irregularities.

That’s only part of Schumacher’s problems though as earlier this week, very early in the morning when all good cyclists should be in bed, young Stefan was just getting home from an all night party at a nightclub. He did the right thing though and got a taxi home, but when he got home things took a worse turn. His girlfriend wasn’t at home, so he hopped in his car to drive to a friend’s house to look for her and an ‘accident happened’. I’d suggest that Schumacher caused an accident myself and that’s exactly what German tabloid newspaper, BILD also believes.

They state that:

• Schumacher crashed his car into a garden fence, luckily injuring no one but then he drove off, leaving the scene of the accident.
• Schumacher then later returned to the scene of the accident where he was arrested by police.
• At the police station he was tested for blood alcohol levels and produced a 0.7 result, which was 0.2 above the legal limit in Germany.
• Schumacher was also allegedly given a preliminary drug test which he supposedly failed.

If these allegations are correct, especially the last one then Stefan is in serious trouble. Remember that other German star, a certain Jan Ullrich who was banned for recreational drug use? At this stage Schumacher has admitted to the auto accident and the alcohol but is denying that he took any drugs,

"I cannot explain this positive drug test. I did not take any drugs, 100 percent."

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

Seems like his main crime is being a bit thick

[MJ_1993]

wats with these german riders?

big jan, sinkewitz, kessler, shumacher

something tells me, that German television wont cover nxt years tour for certain.

not that it affects us, we can always rely on eurosport...

right?

[Andrew G]

PVT - yeah he's obviously thick.

Mo - For me the surprise would be if he was a genuine cheater rather than "having a bit of an upset stomach" as Gerolsteiner have been an über clean team.

[MJ_1993]

i see ur point, but with all these rumours, its not looking gd.
i think i'll publish my thesis on why rumours and the media contribute to doping, and why in general people dope, another time.

[Andrew G]

Can't remember of they do their own testing or not, but they've always been a very anti-drugs team and signed predominantly young riders to bring them along as they believe not as they may have had ground in to them in the past.

There is a very good article in the current Cycle Sport on them. The owner is not from a cycling background. He was a maths teacher, left that and started a bike shop and then developed it all from there. He makes a point of signing his doctors, massuers(sp?) etc from non sporting backgrounds so that they don't bring baggage or bad practices with them, they come from medical backgrounds.

[MJ_1993]

masseurs i think thats how u spell it. Yh i heard that story as well, pity the other teacher was too busy playing with blood (saiz).

Durham have a cycling related degree now as well (durham uni), maybe an invasion of Brit DSs into the ProTour is immanent

[Andrew G]

[quote="Mo Jaffer"]masseurs i think thats how u spell it.

[Ian A4size]

Splendid news indeed Andrew.

[Grahame]

[quote="Andrew G"]
Ian, look we've got a new pedant to join our gang. He's a young fella too so the art won't die out.