UCI announce Schumacher decision on Friday

The International Cycling Union (UCI) will wait until a press conference on Friday to announce its decision regarding the possible suspension of German Stefan Schumacher. The winner of two stages of last year's Tour de France tested positive for the Erythropoietin (EPO) variant CERA in analyses done on blood samples last fall. The French anti-doping agency (AFLD) gave Schumacher a two-year suspension last month, but it is up to the UCI to enforce the ban outside of France.

Schumacher has denied having used the drug, unlike his former teammate Bernhard Kohl, who confessed and was suspended. Schumacher's attorney argued that the blood samples had been opened before the post-Tour analysis and that because there was no 'B' sample, there is no way to prove the positive wasn't a result of contamination.

According to the German news agency dpa, the UCI president Pat McQuaid and AFLP president Pierre Bordry will give a press conference in Paris prior to the start of Paris-Nice and make an announcement then.