Three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador is finally getting his day in court, to try to convince the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that his positive 2010 test for the banned substance clenbuterol was an innocent error. The Spanish cyclist’s career hangs on the CAS ruling.
Spain’s Alberto Contador is arguably the best bicycle racer riding today. At 28, at the peak of his powers, he has won the Tour de France three times, the Giro d'Italia twice, and the Vuelta a España once, plus the Spanish National Time Trial championship and a dozen other major races. He has beaten the best with ease, and the races he has lost recently have been lost due to accidents.
Contador seemed unstoppable, until he tested positive for the banned chemical clenbuterol after the 2010 Tour de France. The Spanish cyclist claimed that the miniscule trace of the drug must have come from contaminated meat—though the substance is banned for use on farm animals, clenbuterol is used illicitly by some farmers to increase the lean muscle mass of livestock.
For athletes, clenbuterol acts as a stimulant and allows greater aerobic capacity.
The case first went to the Royal Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC), which unsurprisingly cleared their national hero. This instigated appeals from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI.) These agencies demanded a hearing before the CAS, the world’s highest sports sanctioning body, which agreed to review the case.
The four-day hearing before a panel of three judges will end Thursday; no decision is expected for several months. In the meantime, Contador will have no way of knowing if 2012 will be his greatest year to date, or the start of a two-year suspension from competitive cycling.
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