Cycling received another major blow this week when the Spanish Cycling Federation announced its verdict on the recent case against three-time and reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador. The verdict: guilty. The punishment: a one-year ban and the loss of his 2010 title.
Before getting into the implications of this revelation, we need to rewind a little bit. Last summer, Contador, celebrated by many as the most talented cyclist of the latest crop of competitors, rode to his third Tour de France victory and his fifth victory in a Grand Tour.
After a dramatic three weeks through high mountain passes and narrow lanes with crashes and various mishaps, Contador finally emerged victorious, edging out Luxembourg's Andy Schleck by a mere 39 seconds. It was a great race by any standards, but was a particularly important one for those fighting to prove the sport was on its way to cleaning up its act. Then came this.
In September, the Union of International Cycling (UCI) announced that one of Contador's blood samples from the July 21 rest day in Pau tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol.
Clenbuterol is a drug typically used by people with breathing difficulties. More recently, it has also been linked to use as a weight-loss aid and aerobic capacity enhancer because of its ability to increase oxygen transportation in the blood. While its effectiveness is not entirely proven, its use has been linked to other athletes, many of whom have also been duly sanctioned.
And though the amount of the drug found in Contador's blood sample was miniscule — the UCI reported it was 400 times below the usual detection amount —–it was still there.
From the outset, Contador has claimed that the presence of the substance was the result of contaminated meat from Spain. While it is scientifically possible for the result to have come about from contaminated meat, the possibility was debated and later dismissed as highly improbable.
Since the results of the drug test were announced, Contador's fate has hung in precarious balance, much like the state of the sport itself. The case was taken through various bodies of the cycling infrastructure and it was finally left to the Spanish Cycling Federation to pass judgment.
In the meantime, many have criticized UCI for releasing the results of the test well before a verdict had been reached. Even if Contador had been declared innocent, his reputation would have been irreparably damaged regardless.
And now, even though Contador has been sanctioned, the UCI is still under fire for the way it handled the case and the virtual press fiasco it created. Of course, there is also the damage caused by the loss of one of cycling's more revered personalities.
In the off-season, Contador had signed with Danish team Saxo Bank and continued to train with his new team; team director Bjarne Riis expressed complete confidence in his new rider. Now, it seems that Contador will be left watching from the roadside and cycling will be without its great champion. This case is yet another black eye, a figurative flat tire, for all.
With Contador stripped of the Tour title, the de facto winner is now Schleck. This is the second time that the maillot jaune has been belatedly awarded to the second-place finisher in the past five years, the last being 2006 when Floyd Landis ceded his title to Oscar Pereiro after a positive test for synthetic testosterone.
For the unversed, this is the equivalent of the Boston Red Sox having their curse-ending championship title stripped after it was learned that David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon were all on the juice. (And there is good evidence that at least one may have been.)
Contador will make a press statement from Majorca this week indicating his plan of action from here on out. He has until Feb. 9 to appeal the case before the decision is made official.
While it is difficult to put a positive spin on this, it seems the best we can hope for is that he will do the honorable thing, come clean and provide information to help the sport continue to clean up in the future. Meanwhile, we will need to find a new horse to root for in 2011. But who can we trust?
