Contador Tested Positive
Three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, who was tested positive these days, blamed the alimentation he has been given. The Spaniard is believed to have had contaminated meat which drove him to positive test. Contador, who also won La Vuelta and Giro d’Italia two years ago, has been suspended as ‘a very small concentration’ of banned anabolic agent clenbuterol during this year’s race has been found in organism. During a press conference, Contador said his victim of poisoned food which led him into being tested positive. The clenbuterol concentration was found in one of the four laboratories in the world that are able and enough equipped to detect it.
“It is a clear case of food contamination. I am sad and disappointed but hold my head high. I think this is going to be resolved in a clear way. With the truth behind you, you can speak loud and clear, and I am confident justice will prevail,” the Spaniard said. The world champion specified in the same time that the food was brought by the Spanish cycling organizer Jose Luis Lopez Cerron from Spain to France during a rest day at Tour de France. Contador claimed he ate the contaminated meat on July 20 and 21. The substance is often given to animals in order to increase their growth rate. “On the 26th we talked at length about how all this had happened. The UCI itself told me to my face that it was a case of food contamination,” the Spanish rider would add. The 27-year-old revealed he have had talks with the UCI ever since so that he could handle the most appropriate way possible and analyze the situation. However, Contador admitted that probably it would have been better for cycling if his situation hadn’t been made public.
Now that he was tested positive people have all the right to doubt cycling, the Spaniard added. “The idea of anyone questioning my Tour victory does not worry me. I am not going to let something like this destroy everything I have done.” One of his main rivals of Le Tour de France, but not only Andy Schleck posted on his twitter profile that it’s been a crazy day in cycling when Contador got detected. “I only heard about it in the press. I hope he is innocent and I think he deserves the right to defend himself now.” According to some analyses, the amount of Clenbuterol found in Contador’s organism was 400 time less that what the anti-doping laboratories accredited by WADA must be able to detect.
Furthermore, the UCI will continue to work with WADA. “The UCI continues working with the scientific support of WADA to analyze all the elements that are relevant to the case. This further investigation may take some more time,” an UCI statement read. The situation concerned France’s anti-doping head Pierre Bordry who told a radio channel the problem is getting much more serious and it needs to be clarified. “Clenbuterol is a forbidden substance, whatever the amount which is detected. If they really found it, it’s forbidden,” he would add.
Despite the amount of clenbuterol was a small one, WADA director general David Howman said that legally speaking an athlete could be sanctioned. “The issue is the lab has detected this. They have the responsibility for pursuing. There is no such thing as a limit where you don’t have to prosecute cases. This is not a substance that has a threshold,” said Howman, reached by telephone as he was changing planes in Dubai on his way to the Commonwealth Games in India. Once the lab records an adverse finding, it’s an adverse finding and it has to be followed up,” this said, before adding that the substance is one that has been used for over 20 to 30 years, so there is nothing new concerning this. “Nobody has ever suggested it is something you can take inadvertently,” he explained.
The Spanish rider hired expert Douwe de Boer who claimed that Contador didn’t use any forbidden substance before July 21. The Dutch expert expressed his conclusion though. He said that there is very likely that the extra-low concentration of substance to have entered into Contador’s organism without the rider knowing it. If by any chance the Spaniard will be stripped by the title following the positive test, he will become the second after American Floyd Landis has been also punished this way. Saxo Bank team manager Bjarne Riis told that he was notified about Contador’s test by rider’s lawyer. “There is nothing else to do but wait for a decision in the case. We are talking about so small amounts that even UCI has doubts about the test,” he said.
Furthermore, Riise would speak to Contador later as the Spanish champion told the manager that the positive test surely follows something which has a strong connection with the food eaten at the time. Clenbuterol is a substance that has anabolic properties that are meant to build muscle while burning fat. Apart it is given to horses or cows to treat breathing problems, the substance might also be used as a stimulant drug that increases the heart rate and body temperature. There are many athletes though who uses it, but in combination with other performance-enhancers such as growth hormone and steroids to build and define muscles.
The substance is listed by WADA among the prohibited. Contador’s problem arrived to world’s champions who looked ready not to condemn the Spaniard. For instance, British rider David Millar, himself part of a ban in 2004 due to blood-booster EPO use, didn’t condemn the three-time French Tour champion. “I 100 percent give Alberto fully the benefit of the doubt. It doesn’t make much sense in that it was a rest-day control and it’s a micro-dose … Alberto gets controlled every day when he’s in the yellow jersey and that would have come up the day before or after the race,” he added. Two years ago, Contador wasn’t able to defend his Tour as his former team Astana got banned after teammate Alexandre Vinokourov was tested positive.
