Tour de France winner Alberto Contador receives one-year doping ban
By ANIThursday, January 27, 2011
LONDON - The Spanish Cycling Federation (SCF) has handed Tour de France winner Alberto Contador a one-year ban for his positive drug test from the 2010 Tour de France.
Contador had tested positive for clenbuterol, a banned weight loss/muscle-building drug also used to fatten cattle.
The three-time Tour winner denies any wrongdoing and says it came from contaminated meat.
Clenbuterol was banned by the European Union in 1996, but it is still administered illicitly by some cattle farmers.
“Alberto Contador has received today a notification of one year ban proposal by the Competition Committee of the Spanish Cycling Federation,” the Daily Telegraph quoted Contador’s spokesperson, as saying.
A final ruling is expected between February 11 and 15.
Contador, world cycling’s governing body (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) can take the matter before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) if any of the parties are unhappy with the ruling.
The 28-year-old, who also won the Tour de France in 2007 and 2009, could be stripped of the 2010 Tour title.
The only previous Tour winner to be stripped of the title was Floyd Landis in 2006. (ANI)
