A member of the management committee of world cycling’s governing body, the UCI, has hinted that Alberto Contador could be looking at a ban of two years following his failed test for clenbuterol during last summer’s Tour de France.
Peder Pedersen was speaking on a programme on Friday evening transmitted on the TV2 Fyn channel of his native Denmark, also home to Contador’s new team, SunGard-Saxo Bank.
“The information we [the UCI] hold at the moment,” said Pedersen, “is that Contador has committed an offence that triggers a ban of two years, so I do not think he will race the Tour de France this year,” Pedersen told the programme, according to a report on TV2 Sporten’s website.
It’s not entirely clear whether Pedersen was talking about what is actually going to happen to Contador – the case is currently before the Spanish cycling federation, the RFEC, whose decision is expected within the next few weeks – or what he and the UCI believed should happen to him, and the Dane offered no further clarification of his remarks.
Clenbuterol is a substance for which no minimum threshold is required to trigger a ban, and Contador’s defence is based on claims that he ingested it innocently after eating a contaminated steak.
Should the RFEC fail to give Contador the full two-year ban that, on the face of it, the presence of clenbuterol in his bloodstream appears to merit, then the UCI is likely to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
6 thoughts on “UCI committee member says Contador should receive two-year ban”
cut off his hands (at least
cut off his hands (at least then the pistol thing wont happen again)
Sounds to me like the media
Sounds to me like the media blowing the statement out of all proportion. The guy has simply restated what we already know. Contador’s blood/urine A & B tests both were positive for Clenbuterol, which is on the banned list. Therefore the simple answer is that he will receive a 2 year competition ban. He didn’t mention anything about what is going on with the various governing bodies. Instead the media read too much in to it.
The reality is that perhaps it would have been better to say nothing, but I am sure that the media would have simply spun a “no comment” statement anyway.
Yet another cyclist, Danish,
Yet another cyclist, Danish, blood tested positive for banned muscle builder Clenbuteral:
“I can safely say that I have not taken the substance knowingly. I have been fully aware of the team’s values and philosophy — which the team has always turned to — any kind of doping is cheating and not under any circumstances acceptable,” Nielsen said on the Danish cycling site.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/01/news/another-cyclist-tests-positive-for-clenbuterol-claims-contamination_155818
The irony: that anyone with half a grain of sense should know that this guy, and Alberto Contador of Spain, are speaking the truth. Neither of these guys is so stupid as to risk the ruination of a $-multi-million career by taking such an overly-easily-detected banned substance. It’s an illegal substance in the cattle industry, but still in use. You’re a world-hopping champion cyclist; you can’t go into a restaurant & know-for-sure the meat isn’t contaminated with Clenbuteral…!
The “Gotta Love It”: here the cycling world is ripped-apart for months now debating the guilt/innocence of Contador; to where they’re so late with the verdict, he may not have time to enter this year’s Tour de France. And @ the 11th-hour (as they are about to decide…) along comes this Danish cyclist with precisely the-same-circumstance-and-statement! If the big guns in the industry don’t “take the hint” & exonerate Contador, they’re total MORONS.
Contador has already – shouting his obvious innocence – said that if he is given the 2-year penalty, that he’ll not return to the sport. And I wouldn’t blame him. Maybe this case will wake up the officials to the vulnerability of their tests.
Quote:Neither of these guys
yeah, and that’s borne out by the fact that no other professional cyclist has ever tested positive for an easily detectable substance in the history of the sport.
Yet another cyclist, Danish,
Yet another cyclist, Danish, blood tested positive for banned muscle builder Clenbuteral:
“I can safely say that I have not taken the substance knowingly. I have been fully aware of the team’s values and philosophy — which the team has always turned to — any kind of doping is cheating and not under any circumstances acceptable,” Nielsen said on the Danish cycling site.
The irony: that anyone with half a grain of sense should know that this guy, and Alberto Contador of Spain, are speaking the truth. Neither of these guys is so stupid as to risk the ruination of a $-multi-million career by taking such an overly-easily-detected banned substance. It’s an illegal substance in the cattle industry, but still in use. You’re a world-hopping champion cyclist; you can’t go into a restaurant & know-for-sure the meat isn’t contaminated with Clenbuteral…!
The “Gotta Love It”: here the cycling world is ripped-apart for months now debating the guilt/innocence of Contador; to where they’re so late with the verdict, he may not have time to enter this year’s Tour de France. And @ the 11th-hour (as they are about to decide…) along comes this Danish cyclist with precisely the-same-circumstance-and-statement! If the big guns in the industry don’t “take the hint” & exonerate Contador, they’re total MORONS.
Contador has already – shouting his obvious innocence – said that if he is given the 2-year penalty, that he’ll not return to the sport. And I wouldn’t blame him. Maybe this case will wake up the officials to the vulnerability of their tests.
wow, maybe if i cut and paste
wow, maybe if i cut and paste my comment again it’ll make my argument look more convincing. what? oh.