The Court of Arbitration for Sport has banned the brilliant 29 year old Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador for two years and stripped him of his 2010 Tour de France title following his positive test for clenbuterol.

Alberto Contador in action in 2007 Photo Nicolas Ridoin

Contador has also been stripped of his 2011 Giro d’Italia title and all other races he has won since July 2010.

L’affaire Contador has dragged on for far too long, and the Tour de France organisers in 2011 were exasperated that the matter was not settled before last year’s race. It led to the farce of the “defending champion” riding the race under the cloud of this case still being unsettled, and a lot of booing of the so-called reigning champion.

Contaminated meat?

Having triumphed in the 2007 and 2009 Tour de France, Contador failed a doping test in September 2010. The Spaniard has always protested his innocence, claiming that the traces of clenbuterol were due to his having eaten contaminated meat.

The Spanish Cycling Federation initially proposed giving the rider a one-year ban before subsequently acquitting him.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency both appealed the decision of the Spanish Cycling Federation to acquit Contador after proposing a one year ban.

A statement from the UCI read:

‘The UCI acknowledges the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to impose a suspension of two years on the rider Alberto Contador following the UCI’s appeal, brought in conjunction with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), in the case concerning the Spanish cyclist.

‘In rejecting the defence argument, in particular that the presence of clenbuterol in Alberto Contador’s urine sample came from the consumption of contaminated meat, today’s ruling confirms the UCI’s position.

‘However, the UCI has not derived a sense of satisfaction from the CAS ruling, but rather welcomes the news as the end of a long-running affair that has been extremely painful for cycling.’

The president of the UCI, Pat McQuaid commented:

Sad day for cycling

‘This is a sad day for our sport. Some may think of it as a victory, but that is not at all the case.

‘There are no winners when it comes to the issue of doping: every case, irrespective of its characteristics, is always a case too many.’

Contador’s triumph in the 2007 Tour de France as part of the Discovery Channel team was the closest winning margin since 1989 beating Australia’s Cadel Evans by a mere 23 seconds, and Contador was the youngest victor at 24 in a decade. Evans finally won the race in 2011.

He subsequently joined the Astana team, and was unable to defend his title when the team was banned from the 2008 race after a series of doping problems, and then won the 2009 race as part of that team, despite a power struggle within the team with new team mate, Lance Armstrong.

Contador cannot resume racing until 6^th August as the two year suspension is retroactive and takes into account a period of provisional suspension already served. He will definitely miss this year’s Tour and the Olympics, unless he appeals successfully.

Andy Schleck to be given the crown for the 2010 Tour de France

Andy Schleck is the new 2010 Tour de France winner, but he has greeted this news in a somber way. He has always believed in Contador’s innocence, and does not consider himself a true winner of the world’s greatest cycle race. He needs to prove this on the roads.

Schleck who lost to Contador in 2010 by a mere 39 seconds said: “The only positive is that there is finally a verdict after 566 days of uncertainty. Now we can move on. I trust that the CAS judges took all things into consideration after reading the 4,000-page file. If now I am declared winner of the 2010 Tour de France it will not make me happy. I battled with Contador in that race and I lost. My goal is to win the Tour de France in a sporting way, being the best of all competitors, not in court. If I succeed this year I will consider it my first Tour de France victory.”

Contador will be left with large legal bills, and will be required to pay back various winners’ cheques. His current team, Saxo Bank, will have problems too as Contador contributes 68 per cent of the team’s ranking points.

Clenbuterol is a banned stimulant which can build muscle, burn fat and lose weight.

Contador has always protested his innocence, claiming the minute trace of clenbuterol discovered in a urine sample was the result of a contaminated steak which had been purchased just over the border in Spain.

Court’s decision leaves a lot of unanswered questions

Whilst the CAS rejected Contador’s claim that the traces were due to a steak which had been bought over the border in Spain, for lack of evidence the ruling by the three-man panel is far from impressive. It rejected the counter theory offered by the UCI that the positive test was as a result of an illegal blood transfusion.

In its conclusion, the CAS said:

“The panel concluded that both the meat contamination scenario and the blood transfusion scenario were, in theory, possible explanations for the adverse analytical findings, but were however equally unlikely.

“In the panel’s opinion, on the basis of the evidence adduced, the presence of clenbuterol was more likely caused by the ingestion of a contaminated food supplement.”

The ruling is deeply frustrating for all concerned, as the CAS is not in any way suggesting systematic doping.

Two mass outbreaks of clenbuterol positives in football competitions in Mexico last year were ruled by FIFA as a “public health issue” and not as instances of doping.

So Contador is guilty but shown to be positively innocent. It is a truly depressing situation for the world of cycling.

This is the second time that a Tour winner has been stripped of the title – the same fate happened to the American Floyd Landis in 2006 after a positive test for testosterone.

Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck, Cycling People, Sports