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Alberto Contador banned for 2 years - but he'll be free to race in August this year

Court of Arbitration for Sport rejects tainted meat defence, but adds no proof Spaniard doped

Alberto Contador has been given a two-year ban by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after it upheld the appeal by the UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) into his acquittal almost 12 months ago by the Spanish national federation, the RFEC, on charges following his positive test for clenbuterol in the 2010 Tour de France. The two-year ban has been backdated to 25 January 2011, the date the RFEC had initially proposed a one year ban. After the provisional suspension he served prior to that has been discounted, he will be free to race on 5 August this year, in time for the Vuelta.

It is understood that the Spaniard, who raced the 2010 Tour de France with Astana, has been stripped of that title, which should go to Andy Schleck, now with RadioShack-Nissan, but who rode that race with Contador's current team, Saxo Bank. Contador, who always maintained his positive test was due to his having eaten a contaminated steak, should also have had the 2011 Giro d'Italia title taken away from him, which now stands to be awarded to Lampre-ISD's Michele Scarponi.

Formally anouncing the decision more than an hour after the news had broken via the Spanish media, CAS said it had "partially upheld the appeals filed by WADA and the UCI and has found Alberto Contador guilty of a doping offence. As a consequence, Alberto Contador is sanctioned with a two-year period of ineligibility starting retroactively on 25 January 2011, minus the period of the provisional suspension served in 2010-2011 (5 months and 19 days). The suspension should therefore come to an end on 5 August 2012."

Initially, the RFEC had said that it was planning to ban Contador for a year, before subsequently acquitting him in February last year. Statements of support on his behalf by the then Spanish prime minister and leader of the opposition as well as other high-profile figures led to accusations that the RFEC had been pressurised into exonerating Contador.

The irony of course is that if Contador had been banned for 12 months a year ago, he would now be returning to the sport around about now.

In a statement, the UCI said: "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," it added, "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.

UCI President Pat McQuaid commented: "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."

Reacting to the news, Bike Pure, which campaigns for a drugs-free sport, said: "This is hollow victory for anti-doping campaigners, with Contador having raced mainly unaffected since he produced the positive test in July 2010. With several months away from racing it shall merely be a short break from racing for the Spaniard."

Andy Schleck, who had lost the maillot jaune to Contador as a result of his chain slipping two days before the drugs test that returned the fateful clenbuterol, and who now stands to be promoted to overall winner of the race in which he has finished second for the last three years, said: “There is no reason to be happy now. First of all I feel sad for Alberto. I always believed in his innocence. This is just a very sad day for cycling. The only positive news is that there is a verdict after 566 days of uncertainty. We can finally move on.”

He continued: “I trust that the CAS judges took all things into consideration after reading a 4,000 page file. If now I am declared overall 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 sportive way, being the best of all competitors, not in court. If I succeed this year, I will consider it as my first Tour victory.

More to follow

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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56 comments

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Mr Mike | 12 years ago
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So same old then, No clear message to kids, Aspiring Pro's, clean Pros' (yes they do exist!)and the guilty ones swayed by concious! Doping must mean a life ban. Don't forget he's not alone in this. His coaches/managers etc must have been aware yet did nothing. Cycling is a sport I've been involved with for many years and the stain of cheating has never gone away. Until the authorities accept that they may loose 1 or 2 percent of cyclists through getting caught they will bring far more into the sport. Contador's a disgrace. He's lied to every one who cares about the sport. Until doping means a life ban for everyone, which means no coaching etc doping per see will continue to be seen as 'naughty', nothing else.

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seabass89 | 12 years ago
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I say as I always say:

An "athlete" caught using performance enhancing drugs for the purpose of doing bettr in competitions should be banned for LIFE, and loose all professional victories.

That should sting enough to make people thing twice about ruining the sport for everybody else..

*spits*

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Gkam84 replied to Raleigh | 12 years ago
0 likes
Raleigh wrote:

Wander what A levels you need?

Its ok, if your "wandering" you'll be fine  4

But here are the 3 guys

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Haas Ph.D.

Quentin Byrne-Sutton - Member of the Geneva Bar, Doctorate in Private International Law (Ph.D.), J.D. in Swiss Law, Postgrad in development studies

Efraim Barak (LL.B.) Taught Labour Law, Director for an M.A. Degree in International Sports Law and Member of the Labour Law Committee of the Israel BAR , the Sport Law Committee of the Israel BAR (Chairman of Sub-Committee on Doping Matters).

So as long as you have some letters of the alphabet behind your name, you'll be fine

Mr Raleigh MoR.ccS (Member of Road.cc Site)  19

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velotech_cycling replied to arrieredupeleton | 12 years ago
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Sorry, perhaps I didn't make it clear - Clenbuterol *is* a PED but there is a lot of opinion around that says it's not a drug of choice for an elite athlete who wants to cheat in this day and age ... it was heavily used (it seems) a decade & more ago, in many sports, but there are harder-to-detect drugs around now that are more potent, given that it was often not being used as a bronchodilator, but as a CNS stimulator & for it's ability to raide base metabolic rate so increasing the potential for fat-burn.

It's still widely used off-label for lots of things that it wasn't originally sanctioned for.

I agree that the indirect evidence of a red-cell transfusion is troubling, though ...

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Mr Mike replied to seabass89 | 12 years ago
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I agree with you. Personally I think that past victories should be removed from ones Palmares, your name removed from records, or failing that the clear words 'won by cheating' should be added. Allowing cyclist back after they've served their ban, however long or short, simply says "tut tut, don't do it again". while IMHO the message has to be, NO, your nothing, your 'achievement's count for nothing, your hours of training count for naught, You're a cheat. Professional cycling needs to turn it's back on these folk, The penalties are simply too soft. When I go to teach some of the kids I work with and they ask me about Contador what do I say? They say "is he as good as we thought"? and I have to reply "no, he's a cheat, for how long we don't know so we have to assume he's always been a cheat"

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alun replied to seabass89 | 12 years ago
0 likes
seabass89 wrote:

I say as I always say:

An "athlete" caught using performance enhancing drugs for the purpose of doing bettr in competitions should be banned for LIFE, and loose all professional victories.

That should sting enough to make people thing twice about ruining the sport for everybody else..

*spits*

I doubt that it would, they don't think that they'll get caught.
It would be a step in the right direction if everyone was subject to the same testing and not some samples to one lab some to another with different levels of detection. How many in the 2010 TdF had a higher level of clenbutamol than Bertie, were tested, but got away with it.

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James Poole | 12 years ago
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I seem to remember that Finger Bang said he would consider walking away from cycling altogether. Perhap's the date at which he can race again will be moot?

Any official response from FB?

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crazy-legs | 12 years ago
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Quote:

Clenbuterol is such an old-school drug, no professional athlete with half a brain cell would intentionally utilise it for performance gain. It's too easy to detect on test, for one thing, and for another, there are other drugs in the group that will do the job better.

Unless of course you took it in training several months previously to build your lean muscle and, before it had completely worked through your system, you took a sample of blood for later transfusion. Personally I think that's what's happened in this case.

No athlete with any common sense takes PEDs during a race, that's not the time it works. You do it out of competition, sort yourself out beforehand and maximise your training.

IMO (and I stress, it is just my opinion), he's been doping beforehand then blood doping during the race. The Spanish have a bit of history with blood doping...

I agree with the other comments though, the Team Managers and Doctors need to be taken to task on this as well. Shouldn't have known dopers like Bjarne Riis managing a team after he pretty much admitted to winning the Tour using EPO.

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velotech_cycling replied to crazy-legs | 12 years ago
0 likes

"Unless of course you took it in training several months previously to build your lean muscle and, before it had completely worked through your system, you took a sample of blood for later transfusion. Personally I think that's what's happened in this case."

That's what out-of-competition testing is designed to prevent & also part of the rationale for blood passporting.

You are quite right in terms of how materials are used - no point at all (in fact in many cases it would be counter-productive) to use some types of PED in competition.

Clen still isn't a great drug by todays' standards for doing this with, though, in either scenario.

Ultimately, in Contador's case we'll never know if he did or didn't, unless he admits he did later on, a la Virenque, Landis, etc. cases ad nauseam ...

The text of the judgement from CAS is so full of provisos, it's pretty clear that they felt that they had to respond to a positive test for a substance with a zero-tolerance level, whilst not being sure enough that the doping had really taken place to be draconian.

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Cooks | 12 years ago
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Let's all take drugs. Whoever takes the least drugs wins.

We could do some cycling while we're at it.

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Raleigh replied to Gkam84 | 12 years ago
0 likes
Gkam84 wrote:
Raleigh wrote:

Wander what A levels you need?

Its ok, if your "wandering" you'll be fine  4

But here are the 3 guys

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Haas Ph.D.

Quentin Byrne-Sutton - Member of the Geneva Bar, Doctorate in Private International Law (Ph.D.), J.D. in Swiss Law, Postgrad in development studies

Efraim Barak (LL.B.) Taught Labour Law, Director for an M.A. Degree in International Sports Law and Member of the Labour Law Committee of the Israel BAR , the Sport Law Committee of the Israel BAR (Chairman of Sub-Committee on Doping Matters).

So as long as you have some letters of the alphabet behind your name, you'll be fine

Mr Raleigh MoR.ccS (Member of Road.cc Site)  19

Ah, you forget, Mr Raleigh MoR.ccS, Nutritionist, Physiotherapist.

 19  19

Oh yeah, have you bought a resistance pool yet?

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WolfieSmith | 12 years ago
0 likes

I was getting 2010 and 2009 mixed up for a moment and wondering why none of you were commenting on GB's ever first podium finish for the TDF  7 I'm sure Wiggo wouldn't have wanted it that way.

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thefatcyclist | 12 years ago
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Serves him right, no top sportsman in any sport is unaware of consequences of dabbling in drugs. Why the most talented cyclist on the planet has been so stupid beats me

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Raleigh replied to thefatcyclist | 12 years ago
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thefatcyclist wrote:

Serves him right, no top sportsman in any sport is unaware of consequences of dabbling in drugs. Why the most talented cyclist on the planet has been so stupid beats me

I think that those are some pretty steep comments to be making there.

Although, we all have our views.

It's sad, because he's such a nice guy.

I don't think that he did it himself, having read David Millar's book, I reckon that it was his managers and coaches an ting who did it.

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WolfieSmith | 12 years ago
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In addition, and in all seriousness, I have to say the lot of you seem far more informed than CAS, the UCI et al. Maybe Road.CC needs to be moving beyond Fantasy Cycling, open a test lab that runs ALL the tests at the same time and the results are judged by you? : ) All bans to run from decision dates with all titles won in the meantime stripped, plus winnings, plus you have to appear in stocks in the TDF caravan to be pelted with rotten fruit for the first week
of the Tour. That'll stop the buggers!

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Stumps | 12 years ago
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The comments by Andy Schleck have not raised an eyebrow on any of the above comments.

He believes Contador is innocent and does not class himself as the winner of the tdf. He may have been coached into saying that but he has gone up in my estimation regardless.

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sam_smith replied to crazy-legs | 12 years ago
0 likes
crazy-legs wrote:
Quote:

Clenbuterol is such an old-school drug, no professional athlete with half a brain cell would intentionally utilise it for performance gain. It's too easy to detect on test, for one thing, and for another, there are other drugs in the group that will do the job better.

Unless of course you took it in training several months previously to build your lean muscle and, before it had completely worked through your system, you took a sample of blood for later transfusion. Personally I think that's what's happened in this case.

No athlete with any common sense takes PEDs during a race, that's not the time it works. You do it out of competition, sort yourself out beforehand and maximise your training.

IMO (and I stress, it is just my opinion), he's been doping beforehand then blood doping during the race. The Spanish have a bit of history with blood doping...

I subscribe to the theory crazy-legs put forward above. I have no sympathy for Contador and after his less than sporting behaviour half way up a mountain on the TdF in 2010 I wasn't at all surprised when drugs were found in his system. Contador is the type of man who wants to win and will do anything to win.

Having read David Millar's autobiography I would cast a weary eye at Astana, which had and still has a few riders that have been caught doping in the past on the team. Could it be that there is or perhaps was a doping culture in Astana on a scale comparable to the Festina Affair?

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russyparkin | 12 years ago
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yeah stumps agreed, shleck doesnt want this 2 year old tainted prize.
im not the greatest contador fan but i feel this should be written off and he shouldnt have been penalized.

role on august, interesting though, just read saxo bank might not have enough points to race in the big races as contador earned 67%! of their overall points and they might be wiped.

rubbish, sad day

bertie, if you want a training partner for the next 6 months i can help

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onlyonediane | 12 years ago
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The UCI are looking at Saxon Bank Pro Tour status, isn't that a sanction too far? The end result is a mess and reflects badly on cycling. Alberto Contador always looks like a man possessed in grand tours. We will never know whether this is due to his talent or the work of Doctors supervising micro doses of banned substances.? However, cannot see him confessing at anytime in the future. So glad Cadel Evans won last year!

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dino | 12 years ago
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AC was clean last year... i imagine he would have been much stronger during the Tour if he had not raced the Giro. Andy might not feel great about his title, but Scarponi must really not appreciate the podium... AC was clean when he won the Giro.

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andyp | 12 years ago
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'I have no sympathy for Contador and after his less than sporting behaviour half way up a mountain on the TdF in 2010 I wasn't at all surprised when drugs were found in his system. Contador is the type of man who wants to win and will do anything to win.'

LO, and quite literally, L. What is the incident of which you speak? You mean when Schleck F*cked up a gear change?
Yes, the type of man who changes gears like he's over 12 years old (sorry to any under 12s tainted by that sweeping generalisation) MUST be doping. QED and that. Jesus.

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Matt_S | 12 years ago
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Raleigh wrote:

Wander what A levels you need?

English?  10

----

With respect to life bans for doping. The reason that these don't exist is because it is believed that it would be against restraint of trade law.

The best way to have life bans would be for teams not to sign dopers back in to the peloton. The UCI is trying to push teams in that direction by excluding points from team classification for the first 2 years after a rider returns from a ban.

But to be honest, apart from Sky I don't think that anyone involved in pro cycling seems to want life bans anyway. Even the so-called 'clean' teams like Garmin are hiring dopers straight back from bans. So clearly nobody has the balls to stand up to and be counted. And Movistar with Valverde seem to be making a point by sticking 2 fingers up and signing him back as the star rider even before his ban was over.

I think one reason for the team management's reluctance to condem dopers to the scrapheap is that they themselves were mostly all cheats who grew up with systemic doping in the peloton, so they don't see it as morally abhorrent.

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Lacticlegs replied to fxceltic | 12 years ago
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"biggest joke is that the ban is deemed to have begun from when he got caught. It should start from now as hes been stringing it out for as long as possible, so its his tough, IMO"

Damn right - the two years should start now! That's quite the defense otherwise - drag everything out for as long as possible then take a retrospective ban...he may lose the results but not his race form and fitness.

The guy should have been made to sit out of the sport for two years. Then see if he can come back. (Given the damage he's done I'd hope not.)

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Lacticlegs replied to velotech_cycling | 12 years ago
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"Clenbuterol is such an old-school drug, no professional athlete with half a brain cell would intentionally utilise it for performance gain."

Simply not true - clenbuterol is widely used because it is widely effective. It is very useful to help metabolize fat and is also a brochodilator - both effects that an athlete would love.

It is true that the amounts detected are too small to be of much benefit but since they also found the presence of blood bag plasticizers it isn't hard to posit a theory whereby Contador was using clenbuterol during an off season training block and syphoned off some blood for re-use during races - and should have been more careful about making sure it was out of his system first.

Or of course it could be that he ate contaminated meat that a friend schlepped across the border in the boot of his car...during the most important race of the season, as the star of a professional team whose every last morsel is weighed, monitored, and guarded against tampering...and the plasticizers are a complete coincidence...because he just wouldn't cheat like that...surely.

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petescales | 12 years ago
0 likes

Shows how much I know! I thought clenbuterol was the Arachnid Homeworld!

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Paulo | 12 years ago
0 likes

its a sad day for cycling when the best rider of the generation gets bannned...
The race results are valid to me... where as our record books for bike racing are becoming a joke full of second place winners... Jan Ullrich got a load of titles stripped from him the day after Alberto  20
Open your eyes, stop being in denial, Top sportsmen in most sports are doped & there is loads of info on it football & tennis imparticular
Oh yeah an Frank Schleck was involved in Operation Puerto for all you that think the Schlecks are clean, Frank admited paying Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes over ten thousand pounds for 'trainning'
http://tennishasasteroidproblem.blogspot.com/p/players-talk-about-doping...
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Eufemiano-Fuentes-Breaks-Off-Silence-286

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