Contador gets One Year Ban

wr8_utd

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Tour de France champion Alberto Contador has confirmed he has received a one-year ban from the Spanish Cycling Federation after a positive drugs test.

During the 2010 Tour Contador tested positive for banned drug clenbuterol, which the three-time Tour winner said came from contaminated meat.

A provisional verdict is expected on Thursday with a final ruling expected between 11 and 15 February.

He has 10 days to appeal and has called a news conference for Friday.

Contador, world cycling's governing body (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) can take the matter before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) if any of the parties are unhappy with the ruling. Cas is sport's final court of appeal.

The UCI tests riders at the Tour but the national authorities are responsible for carrying out investigations and prosecutions.

Contador, the yellow jersey winner in Paris first in 2007 and then in 2009, could be stripped of the 2010 Tour title. The only previous Tour winner to be stripped of the title was Floyd Landis in 2006. This is a genuine mistake and I think it will be resolved in a clear way
Alberto Contador


The Spaniard won the 2010 Tour de France by only 39 seconds from Luxembourg's Andy Schleck.

Contador had previously threatened to end his career if he was punished after a Wada-accredited laboratory in Cologne, Germany, found a "very small concentration" of Clenbuterol, a muscle-building and fat-burning drug, in his urine sample on 21 July.

The amount was 400 times less than the 50 picograms which the anti-doping laboratories accredited by Wada must be able to detect.

Contador, who survived a serious illness six years ago, has always maintained his innocence and said last year: "The UCI itself affirmed in front of me that it was a case of food contamination.

"This is a real error. The system is very questionable and it has to be changed. I cannot tolerate the idea of a possible sanction."

Contador started his career under the guidance of fellow Spaniard Manolo Saiz, who was arrested in 2006 in the Operation Puerto blood-doping scandal.

In 2007 Contador joined the Discovery Channel team, claiming his maiden Tour title under Johan Bruyneel, who masterminded Lance Armstrong's record seven triumphs.

That year Contador was grilled about his possible involvement in the Puerto affair although he was never formally charged and the Spanish cyclist has strongly denied any involvement in the scandal.

The following year he could not defend his Tour title after former team Astana were banned from the race because of their past doping record.

However he did win the Giro and the Vuelta to become only the fifth rider to win in all three grand Tours.

Any ban would leave Contador's new team, Saxo Bank, without a leader for the 2011 Tour.

Contador is the latest in a string of high-profile doping cases, including 1996 Tour winner Bjarne Riis and Landis, to have rocked cycling.

Armstrong is at the centre of a federal investigation in the United States after Landis last year alleged the 39-year-old Texan and other prominent figures in the sport had doped.

Seven-time Tour winner Armstrong has always denied doping.
 
So why aren't WADA bitching about a 2 year ban like they do in football?
 
What's the point? They're all cheats, including a man I used to think was an absolute legend, Lance Armstrong.

They should just legalize it, let them dope up, go to extreme levels, if people die...so be it.
 
BTV_is_neutral said:
What's the point? They're all cheats, including a man I used to think was an absolute legend, Lance Armstrong.

They should just legalize it, let them dope up, go to extreme levels, if people die...so be it.
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:nono:

Stop believing the nonsense the French press speaks.
 
I figured it will end as some sort of compromise, and I hate it. Either he cheated, so he should get the full penalty, or they accept the case is different and clear him or settle for a slap on the wrist. This is just somewhere in the middle.
 
Cheating f&%k, he has always been dirty, he just finally got caught out, like a few people have said though....why the feck arent WADA jumping up and down about 2 years? Thats the standard so why only give him one?
 
wr8_utd said:
:nono:

Stop believing the nonsense the French press speaks.
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I think you're being naive.

Personally, my take on it is this. All the top guys were saucing and Lance still smoked them. Drug free the result would have almost assuredly been the same.

The doping culture in cycling is so unbelievably pervasive it would be silly to think Lance was that much better than anyone else, and he was clean, while every single one of his chief rivals back in the day was doping.
 
I dont know why they dont just give up and tell everyone that they are free to take the stuff and see who does best all doped up instead.

It will be a test/race on both physical element (of the rider) and best pharmaceutical company. Make it "official" I mean.
 
sglowrider said:
I dont know why they dont just give up and tell everyone that they are free to take the stuff and see who does best all doped up instead.

It will be a test/race on both physical element (of the rider) and best pharmaceutical company. Make it "official" I mean.
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That's what I said. It's like Olympic weightlifting, just about everyone does it...why pretend otherwise?
 
sglowrider said:
I dont know why they dont just give up and tell everyone that they are free to take the stuff and see who does best all doped up instead.

It will be a test/race on both physical element (of the rider) and best pharmaceutical company. Make it "official" I mean.
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Because then you force everybody to take doping. You have to remember that a lot of the doping products are unhealthy. There are cyclists (a lot of them) who don't want to take it. Because of principle or because of health reasons.
In the 90's, some talented cyclists have given up their career because they didn't want to join the doping train.
 
Looks like the Spanish federation are now set to clear Contador. No way WADA won't take this case to CAS, though.
 
I wish he gets a longer ban. He deserves it. Hopefully he will be stripped of his yellow jersey too.
 
How can you say what he deserves when you don't know the details and his defence? I certainly don't believe that once you've failed a drugs test you should be hit with the maximum, not at all. That's just too Draconian.
 
Amir said:
How can you say what he deserves when you don't know the details and his defence? I certainly don't believe that once you've failed a drugs test you should be hit with the maximum, not at all. That's just too Draconian.
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I do know the details and it is impossible to have been caused by meat he ate. In fact they tested meat from the butcher it was claimed the Astana cook bought it from and from the samples they couldn't find any meat contaminated with Clenbuterol.

The most likely explanation is that Contador used Clenbuterol as a masking agent to mask other masking agents (yes, it's complicated..) that were masking EPO or some sort of other blood transfusion. This seems to be the general consensus from medical experts who work in the sporting world. However, you can't prove what he was trying to mask; there is only have proof he had Clenbuterol in his system.

The Spanish (sporting) authorities are a disgrace. They have turned a blind eye to athletes doping for decades and don't seem to be interested in tackling the problem. It's about time something is done about it.
 
Didn't Contador claim it was a meat brought from Spain by a friend and not what the entire team were eating?
 
It seems like in Cycling the risk of being not on Drugs and being behind the rest of the feild who are all on drugs is far greater than the risk of being on drugs and getting caught.
 
Ffs. And the sport moves yet another step closer to what now seems like inevitable death. WADA better fecking appeal.
 
Amir said:
Didn't Contador claim it was a meat brought from Spain by a friend and not what the entire team were eating?
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He did claim that but apparently that night there happened to be a tv crew in the hotel following the Astana chef and in that piece the chef said he bought the meat on a local market.

So as far as I understand it, the meat story was just a lie.

Rams said:
I do know the details and it is impossible to have been caused by meat he ate. In fact they tested meat from the butcher it was claimed the Astana cook bought it from and from the samples they couldn't find any meat contaminated with Clenbuterol.

The most likely explanation is that Contador used Clenbuterol as a masking agent to mask other masking agents (yes, it's complicated..) that were masking EPO or some sort of other blood transfusion. This seems to be the general consensus from medical experts who work in the sporting world. However, you can't prove what he was trying to mask; there is only have proof he had Clenbuterol in his system.

The Spanish (sporting) authorities are a disgrace. They have turned a blind eye to athletes doping for decades and don't seem to be interested in tackling the problem. It's about time something is done about it.
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There is also the fact that they found traces of plasticizers in his blood which point to the use of some IV treatment. The problem is that this test has not been validated by WADA and/or UCI yet, even though scientifically there's no doubt about the quality of the test.

You have a point about the Spanish authorities. With Operacion Puerta, they've proved how serious they are when it comes to doping. Valverde, probably Spain's biggest doping sinner had to be tried by an Italian court before he got suspended.
But this doesn't necessarily mean that they're just doing Contador a favour here because he's Spanish. In the first trial, the Spanish court did suspend him (even if it was only for one year) and only in appeal did they drop the suspension because of a precedent in Germany apparently.

I assume the UCI will go to the TAS and get him suspended that way.
 
I believe WADA have appealled to CAS regarding the case in Germany, a table tennis player who failed a drugs test for Clenbuterol when he was in China, claimed it was bad meat and wasn't punished by the German authorities. There is also a case in Italy about a cyclist and 'meat he ate in Mexico'. The Italian Olympic Committee accepted the explanation, but still banned him for a year.

When the Spanish Cycling Union received a preliminary decision to ban Contador for a year while claiming they actually found his version truthful, there were many claims they were looking for a way out. IE, making a decision that Contador will not accept and niether will WADA, possibly, thus forcing CAS make the real decision. But giving him nothing without a valid reason on their part sounds silly, though they could be playing for the local crowd. 'We gave him nothing, if he's banned it's all WADA and CAS's fault'.

However, one problem remains - we do not know what Contador's defence consisted of. King_Eric talked about the 'meat brought especially for him' story being a lie, but it doesn't look like it's made headlines to it could be bogus.

The one thing I do hope, though, is that cases like that are checked thoroughly. Meaning that it's never just a case of 'Well, you failed the drugs test, that's one or two years out for you no matter what'. Check things extensively; If there is doubt, I'd rather a possibly dirty sportsman is active rather than a possibly clean one is destroyed. I'm not sure current rules go this far.
 
It will be a complete joke if he is not suspended, and none of this one year BS. The standard penalty is two years and two years he should be banned for.
 
Rams said:
I do know the details and it is impossible to have been caused by meat he ate. In fact they tested meat from the butcher it was claimed the Astana cook bought it from and from the samples they couldn't find any meat contaminated with Clenbuterol.

The most likely explanation is that Contador used Clenbuterol as a masking agent to mask other masking agents (yes, it's complicated..) that were masking EPO or some sort of other blood transfusion. This seems to be the general consensus from medical experts who work in the sporting world. However, you can't prove what he was trying to mask; there is only have proof he had Clenbuterol in his system.

The Spanish (sporting) authorities are a disgrace. They have turned a blind eye to athletes doping for decades and don't seem to be interested in tackling the problem. It's about time something is done about it.
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Class post man -agree with the lot :cool:

Clenbuterol is as you say a masking agent, and it could be contained in meats. So, whereas it hides the other substances that have been used, a Cyclist may get the benefit of the doubt if found to have Clenbuterol in his system - the lesser evil & worth risking!

The Spanish Cycling authorities have let him off the hook because they & the other Sporting Authorities basked in the glory of it being a great sporting year for Spain - World Cup winner, Tour De France winner & Tennis Grand Slam winner in Nadal etc.. They dont want their bubble to burst, but they wont get away with the Contador situation by the powers that be!
 
Amir said:
I believe WADA have appealled to CAS regarding the case in Germany, a table tennis player who failed a drugs test for Clenbuterol when he was in China, claimed it was bad meat and wasn't punished by the German authorities. There is also a case in Italy about a cyclist and 'meat he ate in Mexico'. The Italian Olympic Committee accepted the explanation, but still banned him for a year.

When the Spanish Cycling Union received a preliminary decision to ban Contador for a year while claiming they actually found his version truthful, there were many claims they were looking for a way out. IE, making a decision that Contador will not accept and niether will WADA, possibly, thus forcing CAS make the real decision. But giving him nothing without a valid reason on their part sounds silly, though they could be playing for the local crowd. 'We gave him nothing, if he's banned it's all WADA and CAS's fault'.

However, one problem remains - we do not know what Contador's defence consisted of. King_Eric talked about the 'meat brought especially for him' story being a lie, but it doesn't look like it's made headlines to it could be bogus.

The one thing I do hope, though, is that cases like that are checked thoroughly. Meaning that it's never just a case of 'Well, you failed the drugs test, that's one or two years out for you no matter what'. Check things extensively; If there is doubt, I'd rather a possibly dirty sportsman is active rather than a possibly clean one is destroyed. I'm not sure current rules go this far.
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This is a source for the 'meat bought in France' story. This interview, which was published during the Tour (so before all the doping stories) was supposedly taken the day Contador ate the meat and here the chef says he bought the meat in Pau, where the resting day was located. I can't read Spanish though, so I'm not absolutely sure it says what I'm being told it says.

Rosell, Figo, Cruyff y Contador, en su mesa | SPORT | Ciclismo


Then I also found this as well:

However, according to the New York Times, an expert in the field of Clenbuterol contamination has said that he is very sceptical that the positive test could be due to meat, unless the rider ate the liver of the animal in question.

Frenando Ramos, who is a professor at the University of Coimbra in Portugal and who has studied this subject for two decades, spoke to the paper. He noted that that the concentration would have to be so high that the animal would have died before being slaughtered.

“I can say 99 percent, it’s impossible,” he said, when asked if meat could be the source of the contamination.
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I think it's impossible for us to really judge based on interviews and articles in the media. We don't know what's in the dossier and we'll just have to trust the Spanish auhorities, till another authorised court decides differently.

But if he does get cleared based on the meat story then many cases will follow I'm afraid.

At this moment for example, there's a big legal battle between a Belgian track cyclist Iljo Keisse and the UCI. Keisse also tested positive for some substance but managed to prove it came from a contamination in some nutritional product. The Belgian association cleared him on all charges based on this evidence, but UCI appealed before TAS and won the appeal.
Keisse however decided to appeal in Belgium against that verdict based on the fact that the legal procedures at TAS are not conform the rights to a fair trial as stated in the declaration of Human Rights. The court in Belgium followed these arguments and cleared Keisse again on all charges making him free to start any cycling race in Europe. The UCI however decided to just ignore this verdict and put pressure on all organisers not to let Keisse start, which is just illegal given the fact that every verdict in the European Union counts for the whole EU.
The first time the UCI threatened one of these organisers (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), Keisse took things to court in Holland and won his case there as well, also based on the fact that legal procedures at TAS are just ridiculous. They entered and finished the competition but eventually the UCI just decided to scratch them out of the final standings at the end of the week.


To make a long story short, the UCI are just using every dirty trick in the book to try and force Keisse to give up. Hopefully, he'll just continue his battle because what the UCI does here is just ridiculous. This could be another Bosman-like case if they continue. One small fish against a big organisation and this could also have big consequences. But the problem is that Keisse just doesn't have the money to keep up with these legal actions.


Now if Contador gets cleared here, it could help Keisse as well in his battle with the UCI.
 
WeasteDevil said:
I thought it was all down to eating dodgy liver or something like the Mexican footballers?
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That was their defence as far as I know, yes. But some elements show that this explenation was a lie (or at least partly) since the meat was bought at a local market and not in Spain as Contador claimed initially.

I don't know if he's convicted solely based on the clenbuterol in his blood though. There were reports of plasticizers in his blood as well, which can point to blood transfusions and thus blooddoping. And this can then explain the very low amounts of clenbuterol in his blood because the clenbuterol (which can be used to mask other doping) would have been used at the time the blood was initially taken and stored.

And besides that, it's known that in cycling they are much harder on doping than in football. Where football players can be given the benefit of the doubt, in cycling this is hardly ever the case.
 
I'm not too familiar with cycling but having read the OP, it says they found 400 times less than the amount they needed to find? Why on earth would you ban someone for finding something so small that it's nowhere near what you're required to find?? That strikes me as arresting somebody because there was a single flake of ground up weed on his dashboard that fell out of a grinder at some point.
 
Zarlak said:
I'm not too familiar with cycling but having read the OP, it says they found 400 times less than the amount they needed to find? Why on earth would you ban someone for finding something so small that it's nowhere near what you're required to find?? That strikes me as arresting somebody because there was a single flake of ground up weed on his dashboard that fell out of a grinder at some point.
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Partly because they are going crazy in cycling. And partly becuase this 1/400th can still point to (masked) doping use or doping use a while before the test was taken. That's why I'm very curious to see the reasoning behind the verdict.

There have been other cyclists who were punished for the exact same thing, but who were cleared later on. It'll be interesting to see if Contador appeals and what happens there.

I just checked and the WADA rules clearly states that any amount is considered doping. That 1 in 400 that you mention was the limit of the previous blood test they were using. But in this case, a new blood test was used which can find much smaller amounts in the blood.
The only question is if this amount is fysiologically relevant in terms of better sporting results. And it probably isn't. But since the product can also be used as a masking element, they are very strict about it.

WADA's stance is that every athlete is responsible for whatever he eats. And thus, even these minute amounts are punishable.
 
I know (well, from what I can remember reading) that the participants of in the 2012 olymipics have all been advised to stay away from liver. Shame really, lamb's liver and onions, wonderful meal.
 
Randall Flagg said:
Why is it so common in cycling? What is wrong with that sport?
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I don't think there's more wrong with this sport than there is with a lot of other sports where endurance is the main factor (in some cases the only factor) deciding who wins. But they are much and much stricter, almost absurdly, than in other sports and there isn't a single sport where athletes get tested so often. Which means there are much more positive cases.

These cyclists have to fill in diaries where they will be weeks in advanced, so that the WADA people can do unannounced urine and blood tests. Every change of plans, where you will be more than an hour or something away from where you said you were going to be (even things as going to a restaurant, going a day to the sea, anything) has to be communicated with the UCI (world cycling federation) so that they know where they are at any given moment. It's really crazy.

Last 10 years, I'm convinced most of the doping culture has gone away in cycling. It's much more on an individual level now, whereas in the past whole teams had an organised structure where the club doctor was working along with a doping program.
But obviously people will always keep trying to cheat when so much money is at stake and doping can give you such an immediate effect.
 
If they're serious about eradicating the problem they'll start banning these cnuts for life.
 
King_Eric said:
I don't know if he's convicted solely based on the clenbuterol in his blood though. There were reports of plasticizers in his blood as well, which can point to blood transfusions and thus blooddoping. And this can then explain the very low amounts of clenbuterol in his blood because the clenbuterol (which can be used to mask other doping) would have been used at the time the blood was initially taken and stored.
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I haven't read the whole CAS report, but their bottom line was that both the bad meat version and the blood transfusion version were plausible, but unlikely. It actually claimed a bad food supplement is far more likely to have caused this.

But at the end of the day an athlete is responsible to anything that is found in his body. And as Contador could not prove his version, he was banned.

You can somehow live with that, but the system is still flawed. Because at first you get your own country's sporting bodies deciding your fate. Contador was cleared by an independent Spanish committee - maybe they were biased in his favour, it's obviously quite possible, even though his own cycling union recommended a one year ban. Anyhow, he was cleared, returned to competition, they we had the international appeal to CAS and now - a year a half after it all started - he is banned and a whole year of his results has been wiped out as if it never happened. You can understand why, obviously, but again, there's a problem with the system.

By the way, he's not actually started a two year ban now, he's suspended until August, which means he misses the Tour and the Olympics. He'll be back for the Vuelta and probably win it. Oh, and poor Andy Schleck's getting his first Tour win, which he doesn't really want.
 
I don't really follow cycling much nor do I understand the science behind doping much but if what I read is true; that Armstrong's urine sample from his winning days have been tested recently to check for drugs and have come out clean, how can some of you guys believe that he still has been taking illegal substances?
 
Hitchcocker said:
I don't really follow cycling much nor do I understand the science behind doping much but if what I read is true; that Armstrong's urine sample from his winning days have been tested recently to check for drugs and have come out clean, how can some of you guys believe that he still has been taking illegal substances?
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Of course. He was arguably in one of cycling's worst periods of doping. You don't ride clean and still come out on top like he did.

It doesn't detract from what he did of course. Doping in cycling has been big since the 40's apparently. It's just the testing measures have got better and better.
 
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