Would anyone really poison Frank Schleck?

It seems like a ridiculous thing to say: I find it hard to believe that Johan Bruyneel, no matter how aggrieved he felt with either of the Schlecks, would stoop to actually poisoning them.

I can almost - almost - understand the idea of someone in his position giving a rider an illegal drug in order that they would fail a doping test, just out of spite.

I can certainly imagine one team setting out to "dope" a rival rider: or a demented fan (or cycling hater) doing something like that - if you remember, when Frankie's adverse finding was first reported, that was our main thought, that Frankie had accidentally taken a bidon meant for someone else.

Whether it was a doping rider's usual "special" bidon, or  merely a randomly contaminated bidon,  both suggestions were equally valid:  likewise whether it was meant for Frankie, or whether he grabbed it by mistake, again, we would never know.

But in all those cases, it would be done by someone outside the team. I find it very hard to believe that anyone in the management would do anything to harm one of their own riders - I believe the phrase is "cutting off your nose to spite your face."

It's not as though Shack have so many UCI points that they don't need any more.

But even if that were the case, and it was done by someone within the team, either by Mr Bruyneel, or at his direction - to give Frankie something that could possibly kill him?  There's a world of difference between giving a rider something that would cause him to fail doping, and something that might cause his heart to fail.

I don't quite see that happening.

But as Inge said (comments, last post), it's a bit of a coincidence that Frankie's hearing was postponed for a week, and within that week, we have had the suggestion - it came from L'Equipe, which I would have thought was a fairly respectable sports journal - that it was deliberate poisoning, to prevent him from being attractive to any other teams.

(As though he would leave Andy behind, pffff!)

Meanwhile, Andy has had some reasonable days of riding in Beijing: we haven't seen much of him, and he didn't quite finish the race, but the DS on the Shack site said that he'd had four good days of racing, and would now be going straight on into training, through the winter, in the sure and certain  hope that next season would be considerably better than this one, in every single way.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Beijing:

Reporter: So, Andy, what's all this about Mr Bruyneel poisoning your brother?
Andy: *stony silence*, face somewhat reminiscent of small child presented with spoonful of stewed prunes and wordlessly conveying the message "no, I won't eat it."

 Is that Sprite he's drinking?

Oh, and what's that on his upper lip? No, Andy, not another attempt to grow the Caterpillar of Doom, please!