German federation to begin action against Schumacher

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German cycling federation (BDR) will begin disciplinary action against rider Stefan Schumacher on Tuesday following his reported positive doping test during the Tour de France.

"The aim (of the disciplinary proceedings) will be a minimum ban of two years," the federation said in a statement on its website (www.rad-net.de).

The BDR statement did not make clear if the federation had been officially informed of the positive test result announced by Schumacher's team Gerolsteiner on Monday.

"It is a shock, but it is also good news," said BDR President Rudolf Scharping. "The ever tighter net of the anti-doping investigators is making sure that practically no-one is getting through anymore."

Gerolsteiner team manager Hans-Michael Holczer told the German sports agency SID he had been personally informed of the adverse result by Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme.

SID said Schumacher had denied doping, with the agency quoting the rider describing the allegations as "complete nonsense."

The 27-year-old Schumacher won both time trials on this year's Tour de France and wore the leader's yellow jersey for two days.

His other successes included overall victories on the 2006 Tours of Poland and Benelux and a road race bronze medal at the 2007 world championships in Stuttgart.

(Writing by Mark Ledsom in Berne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)