Stefan Schumacher

In 2006 Schumacher, now riding for Gerolsteiner, won the Eneco Tour of Benelux by one second after colliding with his main rival George Hincapie in the closing metres of the final stage, when time bonuses were available for the leading finishers. Schumacher claimed he had collided first with a spectator and the race jury accepted his story.

Following his third place in the road race at the 2007 UCI Road World Championships in his home town of Stuttgart, Schumacher was arrested for drunken driving. Four months later he revealed that the blood test taken at the time of his arrest had shown traces of amphetamines, whilst denying that he had knowingly taken drugs or had any knowledge of how the positive test had come about. Following a rule change in 2004 amphetamines were no longer on WADA's out-of-competition banned list; as a result the German federation again exonerated him.

Schumacher at the 2008 Tour de France

In the 2008 Tour de France, Schumacher, riding as leader of Gerolsteiner, won both time trials, beating Swiss favourite Fabian Cancellara, and took the yellow jersey of race leader after the first. After Gerolsteiner was announced to be folding, Schumacher signed a two-year contract with Quick-Step.[2]

On 6 October 2008 the media reported that Schumacher had tested positive for the controlled substance continuous erythropoietin receptor activator (CERA), a new generation of erythropoietin (EPO), in a blood sample taken during the 2008 Tour de France.[3] CERA was also the drug for which Italian cyclists Riccardo Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli tested positive during the Tour de France. The German cycling federation was likely to take disciplinary action,[4] however Schumacher continued to assert his innocence and believed he was eligible to ride in the 2009 season and having a contract with Quick-Step. Quick-Step manager Patrick Lefevere stated that Schumacher's contract would not be honored.[5]

On 19 February 2009 Schumacher was banned for two years by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).[6] In January 2010, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) reduced Schumacher's ban, allowing him to ride again as from August 2010.[7]

In April 2009 Schumacher's name was raised in connection with a positive test for performance-enhancing drugs at the 2008 Summer Olympics.[8] Both his "A" and "B" samples tested positive for CERA.[9] Schumacher was disqualified after these positive tests; he appealed against this to CAS, but dropped his appeal in April 2010.[10]

Schumacher's ban ended in August 2010. He came back to ride for the Miche team, and joined Christina Watches–Onfone for the 2012 season.[11] In March 2013 Schumacher confessed to doping in an interview with the news magazine Der Spiegel. He stated he started doping in his mid-twenties and used "EPO, growth hormone and corticosteroids".[12] He also said that his former team Gerolsteiner tolerated doping and it became as banal as "having a plate of pasta after training".[13]