On 22 January 2009, the Disciplinary Panel of l’Agence française de lutte contre le dopage (AFLD), the French Anti-Doping Agency, suspended Stefan Schumacher (the Rider) for a period of two years from all sports events organized by French sports federation after he tested positive for the prohibited substance EPO CERA during the Tour de France 2008. On 3 March 2009, the UCI issued a statement of international recognition of the decision rendered by the AFLD. Hereafter on 1 April 2009 Stefan Schumacher filed an appeal with CAS in order to request the annulment of the UCI recognition statement.
In January 2009 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to perform further testing on the Rider’s samples collected during the 2008 Olympic Games, due to a fully validated test to detect CERA became available.
In April 2009 The IOC reported an anti-doping rule violation against Stefan Schumacher after his 2008 A and B samples tested positive for the prohibited substance CERA.
After notification by the IOC the Rider filed several documents and arguments in his defence and was heard for the IOC Disciplinary Commission in July 2009. The Rider stated he had not taken any prohibited substances and alleged in his defence that the burden of proof has not been met.
After considering the Rider’s arguments the Disciplinary Commission concludes that he has committed an anti-doping rule violation and decides to disqualify the Rider from Men’s Individual Time Trial event of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The UCI is requested to modify the disqualification accordingly and to consider any further action within its own competence.
