Frank Schleck will have to report to the Disciplinary Board of ALAD, the Luxembourg Anti-Doping Agency. Frank was tested positively on July 14th during the Tour de France 2012 for a specified substance according to the French anti-doping agency. That substance, Xipamide is a diuretic, often used to mask other performance enhancers. Frank Schleck, after a miserable season for both Schleck brothers and mostly all of the Leopard RTN team, didn't need yet another leg downhill in a desperate battle to reach the bottom and reemerge.
Hold your horses !
Frank Schleck's positive testing, in both the A and B samples, merely allows to conclude to an "abnormal" test, as Xipamide is not a doping substance. It means that there was smoke, but no one could find the fire. There might be sanctions though, but generally one may expect far lighter consequences than in the case of a fully demonstrated doping case.
In addition Frank Schleck denies any allegation of doping and has even filed a criminal complaint with French Police, which is in line with his statement that the substance could only have entered his body unbeknownst to him. A poisoning in fact, which would not be a doping case.
Somewhere downhill, there is a bottom. It is important to get there sooner than later and leave all this behind. There will be a new Start sometime.
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