Alberto Contador vs WADA and the UCI begins in Switzerland
Over the next four days in Lausanne, the Court of Arbitration for Sport will conduct a hearing into three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador’s positive test for Clenbuterol.
In that time, cycling’s governing body the UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency will argue that Contador should serve a suspension for the positive at the 2010 Tour, which the Spaniard won by 39 seconds over Andy Schleck. Contador’s defense team, along with the Spanish cycling federation (RFEC), will try to prove that the cyclist was contaminated by Spanish beef.
This is a watershed case for how Clenbuterol positives are treated by sporting authorities. Recently, many soccer players have been cleared by national governing authorities and the CAS for contamination by Mexican beef, especially at this summer’s under-17 world championship. Sometimes used in Mexico and China’s meat industry, Clebuterol is banned for animal-use in the EU, and Spanish beef producers have been up in arms about the source claims.
On July 21, 2010, Contador was found to have 50 pictograms of Clenbuterol in a urine sample. Often utilized to treat asthma, the substance is also used to build lean muscle and burn fat in cattle, swine and athletes. Suspended during the RFEC’s investigation, Contador was cleared to race this season and garnered his second Giro d’Italia in a blowout while finishing fifth in the Tour.
Initially the CAS hearing was supposed to occur in June of this year, but was postponed at Contador’s request. He raced the Tour de France with the hearing to come in August. However, after Contador’s team handed the anti-doping agency 3000 pages of documents just before the scheduled meeting, WADA requested an ever later date. The CAS may not hand down its decision until February.
It’s expected that WADA will focus on plasticizers, the residue of plastic inside blood-transfusion bags, detected in Contador’s urine the day before the Clenbuterol positive. The organization will also point to Contador’s biological passport, which indicates a jump in hemoglobin levels in May, 2010, to support a doping charge.
