Report: Test samples suggest Tour de France winner Contador may have received transfusion

Report: Samples may suggest Contador was doping

NEW YORK — The New York Times is reporting that Alberto Contador had eight times the allowable amount of a chemical which indicates doping in his system during this year’s Tour de France, which he won for the third time.

A urine sample taken on July 20 showed a plasticizer — found in intravenous bags like the ones used for endurance-boosting blood transfusions. Contador tested positive for clenbuterol one day later, and was provisionally suspended by the International Cycling Union last week.

Reports out of France and Germany last week also said traces of a plasticizer were found in Contador’s urine.

Contador has repeatedly denied doping or having a transfusion, instead blaming the clenbuterol on contaminated meat.