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Alberto Contador's DS at Astana warns him not to take the same road as Marco Pantani

Beppe Martinelli says Spaniard should accept punishment and focus on his return to the sport

Giuseppe Martinelli, who was Alberto Contador’s directeur sportif at Astana, says he believes the Spanish rider is clean but has urged him to accept the one-year ban he appears likely to receive following his positive test for clenbuterol in last year’s Tour de France to avoid the same fate as another of his former charges, Marco Pantani.

In an interview published in today’s print edition of the Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, the 55-year-old Martinelli, who a little over six months ago celebrated with Contador on the Champs Elysées after the cyclist won his third Tour de France title, was unequivocal about what he believed the Spaniard should do now.

The cyclist continues to protest his innocence and has said he will fight any ban imposed by the Spanish federation, the RFEC, but Martinelli says he should “accept the ban and start again, thinking to when he’ll return to racing. He’s the strongest, he’s already demonstrated that.”

He rejects the notion that this would in effect be an admission of guilt on Contador’s part, saying: “I’d like to make it clear, to avoid any misunderstanding: I believe in Alberto. He’s clean. And knowing very well what an effort we put into winning this Tour, you can imagine how much it would cost me to lose it…”

Martinelli, who in his own career won Olympic silver in the road race at the 1976 Montreal Olympics as well as stages in the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta, believes that Contador is now at a crossroads.

“There are times when you have to make a choice,” he explains. “Either you bash yourself against a rubber wall and bounce backwards, or you find the courage to start again. Alberto has to do only what his head tells him, without becoming influenced by the too many people that surround him. And he mustn’t commit the same error as Marco Pantani made in 1999.”

That was the year in which Pantani, leading the Giro d’Italia on its penultimate day, was thrown off the race for having an excessive haematocrit level. Regulations provided for a suspension of 15 days for health reasons, but Pantani stayed away from cycling for months, which Martinelli believes helped contribute to the downwards spiral that led, less than five years later, to his death in a Rimini hotel room.

“After the exclusion from the Giro at Madonna di Campiglio, Pantani should have presented himself at the Grand Depart of the Tour,” he insists. “I didn’t manage to convince him. With the experience of the last 11 years, I’m sure that now I’d manage to do so…

“Going back to Alberto, I’m sure he’s done nothing illegal, but in the condition he finds himself in it’s not easy to demonstrate that, because in cycling the burden of proof is reversed. So, Alberto, think already about when you’ll come back. A year’s ban would expire at the end of August. That’s not too long, if you think about it.”

That assumes that the RFEC does ban Contador for a year, as was widely reported last week, although the UCI was quick to state that no final decision had yet been reached. Moreover, there could still be further uncertainty over the date of his eventual return, should the UCI and the World Anti-doping Agency decide to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport with the aim of securing a two-year ban.

Martinelli, who has now stepped up to the role of team manager at Atsana, was asked why at the team’s recent presentation in Monte Carlo, there was no reference whatsoever to Contador, now with Saxo Bank-SunGard, or to his 2010 Tour de France success which, for the time being at least, has not yet been expunged from the record books.

“It was a decision made more out of love than anything else,” he explains, adding: “I’ll make a confession to you: my boss asked me if we could get him back.”

He acknowledges, however, that the loss of Contador is a blow to the Kazakh team. “We’re missing the phenomenon,” he admits. “But we know that, and we’ve redesigned the squad. We’re betting on Kreuziger, who up until last year was at the same level as Nibali, then Vincenzo expoded,” referring to the Czech rider’s former Liquigas team mate, winner of the Vuelta last September.

But, he points out, at 24, Kreuziger is two years younger than the Sicilian, “and Vinokourov will also still be very competitive.”

Referring to his new role as team manager, Martinelli says that “the responsibility of the post-Contador period is heavy. There are many more things to do. The Kazakhs are used to winning, if that doesn’t happen I expect a bit of trouble…!”
 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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10 comments

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Felix | 13 years ago
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Que? So I googled "Alberto Contador were a close personal friend, my friendly advice" My gad that Jim Kendal chap gets about! There are pages and pages of it....
But is he elfstone  39

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dave atkinson replied to Felix | 13 years ago
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Felix wrote:

But is he elfstone  39

Yes, he is  1

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dave atkinson | 13 years ago
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Maybe we could all pick a time slot on the next contador story and the person with the elfstone posting time gets a tee  39

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dave atkinson | 13 years ago
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I'm waiting to see if he drops another letter next time, just to keep us on our toes.

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step-hent | 13 years ago
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Naturally, this subject splits opinion. The fact is, the rules state that no clenbuterol is allowed in an athlete's system, regardless of how it got there, and that a 2 year ban is the minimum punishment. So he's very lucky to have got himself the apparent option of accepting a year. Frankly, he's a mug if he fights it, although WADA might fight it themselves anyway. The least he'll come out of any appeal with is a 2 year ban, so better to accept a year and have the option of staying with Saxo, surely...

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Tony Farrelly replied to step-hent | 13 years ago
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step-hent wrote:

Naturally, this subject splits opinion. The fact is, the rules state that no clenbuterol is allowed in an athlete's system, regardless of how it got there, and that a 2 year ban is the minimum punishment. So he's very lucky to have got himself the apparent option of accepting a year. Frankly, he's a mug if he fights it, although WADA might fight it themselves anyway. The least he'll come out of any appeal with is a 2 year ban, so better to accept a year and have the option of staying with Saxo, surely...

Totally agree step-hent, either Contador is getting some very bad advice or he is totally deluded… or both

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cactuscat | 13 years ago
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missed out the 'i' on that last cut and paste job, elfstone. you're getting sloppy.  37

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KirinChris replied to cactuscat | 13 years ago
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I sense a Road CC meme developing here...
 39

Rumour has it that Elfstone was the man behind All Your Base Are Belong To Us.

I just can't decide if it is "My Friend Alberto" or "AND I WOULD NOT RETURN" that has most mileage.

Or can Dave and Tony just make up daily Contador stories and we have a sweep on how many times he will cut and paste the same thing.

Perhaps I'm just being an immature lug-head but life is so brimful of uncertainties and severely emotionally draining that I'm sure we'd welcome the respite.
 19

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Elfstone | 13 years ago
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f Alberto Contador were a close personal friend, my friendly advice to him would be to retire from the professional cycling arena, permanently. The industry has let him down; and the federations in judgment have shown themselves to be immature lug-heads. This is not a group I'd encourage "my friend Alberto" to continue in relationship with.
That said; It occurs to me that the last many months have probably been for Contador severely emotionally draining - they certainly would have been for myself - and brimful of uncertainties; that I don't know that Alberto would be able to be in top-form, even if he'd qualified for this year's Tour.
Were I Contador, I'd welcome the respite: AND I WOULD NOT RETURN.

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TchmilFan | 13 years ago
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"Alberto Contador's DS at Astana warns him not to take the same road as Marco Pantani"

What, the one with the black cat in the road? Owwwwww

I miss Il Pirata

 2

I don't think I'd miss Berty, there's something distinctly uncharismatic about him.

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