It appears that Austria has an unusually high percentage of doping cases, and we have reported on several stories ranging from Lisa Hütthaler, Hannes Hempel to Michael Weiss. That however likely points to stricter doping testing in that small Central European country. Now Austrian Amateur cyclist Emanuel Nösig who has been on the podium at a variety of bike marathon events has been caught in the net of the anti-doping authorities with anabolic steroids and furosemide in his system during the Austrian Hill Climb Championships, according to a report of the German Tour magazine. Furosemide is a diuretic used to treat congestive heart failure and edema, plus it is used on race horses to prevent nose bleeding during the events. It is however on the WADA list of banned substances for its alleged use to mask banned substances. The news itself of Emanuel Nösig's doping case was published earlier on the page of the Austrian Cycling Federation ÖRV.

Nösig has an impressive resume to his name and on his club website Rad Union Sporthütte he was even called Erlkönig or Erlking, like the famous and not so fine character from the 1782 poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. But that is likely not what they had in mind when the quoted the poem partially.

In 2014 the Austrian won the Eddy Merckx Classic, 3 Länder Giro, Engadiner Radmarathon, and was second at the Ötztaler Bike Marathon. In 2013 he won the Achensee Radmarathon (screen shot is from that event), took the Alpcup and finished second with his team during the Transalp Bike Marathon.

Nösig will now join Michael Schwarzäugl and Günter Baringer who started their doping related suspensions in June and October of 2014 respectively. Schwarzäugel's suspension will end on June 27, 2016 but the length of Baringer's ban has not been made public yet.

Below is a video of Emanuel Nösig in action during the 2013 Aachensee Radmarathon, an event he won with an average of 45km/h over the final 3.5km according to the video notes.




Thanks Uli Fluhme of GFNY for the tip.