Frank Schleck

September 28th, 2008 filed in Cycling

Frank Schleck is the latest professional road cyclist to be implicated in doping scandal. The rider from Luxembourg, who wore the yellow jersey during this year’s Tour de France, was connected to doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes by a German newspaper prior to the start of the World Championship road race. Fuentes is the doctor whose Madrid clinic was raided in 2006 as part of Operacion Puerto, an investigation that has already implicated big names Jan Ulrich, Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde, Ivan Basso, and Tyler Hamilton.

Italian anti-drugs police raided the hotel where he and his team were staying on Friday ahead of the world championships, after a prosecutor in Luxembourg confirmed he had documents showing the cyclist had allegedly made a deposit of more than $10,000 to a Swiss bank account belonging to Fuentes in March 2006.

Schleck has been quick to face the accusations and make a statement. From Cycling Weekly :

“I haven’t done anything wrong in my career as a professional cyclist, I haven’t doped and I have no intention of doing so.” Schleck said. “I will explain these matters to the Luxembourg authorities in due course. My conscience is clear.”

Schleck’s CSC-Saxo Bank team manager Bjarne Riss, himself an admitted EPO user in his 1996 Tour de France victory, has spoken out in defense of Frank. From the AFP:

“Frank has said he has not doped or been involved in any illegal practices. He hasn’t compromised any of the team’s or UCI’s (International Cycling Union) rules,” Riis said Sunday. “We will wait for Frank to speak to the Luxembourg authorities before making any decisions. We base our decisions on facts.”

See the Frank Schleck Update for the latest on this situation.

Frank Schleck and his family are CHEATers
Chester Cheater

Schleck has been suspected since Operacion Puerto broke back in 2006. Now they have the smoking gun. His friend and former teammate Ivan Basso was snared by a codename on one of the blood bags seized in a raid of the clinic. The bag was labeled with the name of his dog, “Birillo”. A second blood bag was labeled, ‘friend of Birillio’. Now with the banking transaction records discovered, they have enough evidence to take Schleck down. I only hope they expand the investigation to include his brother Andy. The winner of the white jersey for best young rider in the 2008 Tour de France, Andy had a Floyd Landis like “bonk” on Hautacam, but then recovered to dominate at times in the Alps, including finishing 3rd on Alpe d’Huez. The entire family is suspect, as even their father was stopped by French custom officers searching for doping substances. This occurred during the 18th stage of the Tour, a day after Andy’s 3rd place finish, and with Frank riding second in the overall classification.

Frank Schleck BEAT his competitors at the Tour de France
Billy Beater

Frank’s father and brother are irrelevant in this conversation. His father was cleared of any wrong doing, as the officials found nothing of interest in his vehicle. The Schlecks are a proud cycling family, with a long history in the sport. Father Johnny was also a road racer who rode several times as a professional in the Tour de France and Vuelta a España races between 1965 and 1974. As Frank states in the quotes above, he will speak to the authorities and he will be vindicated, as he has done nothing wrong. Frank was allowed to ride in Sunday’s race because there is not currently sufficient evidence against him. Also from the AFP :

The UCI’s anti-doping chief, Anne Gripper, said the UCI would apply the rules to the letter before deciding, once they have seen the necessary evidence, whether to open any disciplinary procedure. “There needs to be very strong evidence before we can even open a disciplinary procedure, and stop them riding. We will obviously seek the information that is alleged to be available. We’ll get this as quickly as we can through the authorities.”

What do you think? Did Frank Schleck CHEAT, or BEAT?