Cycling:The International Cycling Union (UCI) have asked the Spanish cycling federation (RFEC) to open disciplinary proceedings against Tour de France champion Alberto Contador.
Contador tested positive for clenbuterol on July 21st, the second rest day of the 2010 race, and was provisionally suspended by UCI. But the 27-year-old Spaniard, who also won the Tour de France in 2007 and 2009, has denied any wrongdoing and claimed the positive result was caused by eating contaminated meat.
“At the end of a long and meticulous enquiry entrusted to highly qualified, Wada-accredited experts, and considering all the information currently in its possession, the UCI have concluded that disciplinary proceedings should be opened against Alberto Contador,” a UCI statement read.
“The UCI have today sent their request to the Spanish federation which has competence in this regard. It is now the responsibility of this federation to determine whether Alberto Contador has breached the UCI Anti-Doping Rules.
“In the meantime, until the end of the proceedings and despite his provisional suspension, Alberto Contador still benefits from a presumption of innocence.”
The UCI revealed in September that the amount of clenbuterol detected in Contador’s urine on July 21st was 400 times smaller than the World Anti-Doping Agency are required to detect.
Clenbuterol can be used to reduce body fat and improve aerobic capacity. If the test failure is upheld Contador could be stripped of his Tour title and given a two-year ban.
Contador’s spokesman Jacinto Vidarte said: “There is nothing special to say. We were expecting just this, that this affair was going to be advanced a little bit and the UCI did that today.
“Now the Spanish Federation has to decide and that’s all. Now we wait for them to call us and we will present them with all our documentation about the food contamination.”
Juan Carlos Castano, president of the Spanish federation confirmed they had received the UCI’s request to open disciplinary proceedings against Contador.
Castano was quoted as saying in the Spanish media: “The federation are treating it as a normal process like any other investigation.
“All the documentation that the UCI have transferred to us will be given to the competition committee of the federation for analysis.
“We have to analyse the documentation. We’ve not had time to see it all because there is a lot of documentation.”
Castano preferred not to venture a guess at what the outcome might be, saying: “Anything could happen, from the investigation being closed, because it can be shown there are no reasons for a sanction, to a simple reprimand or a suspension of two years as a maximum.”
Castano added: “Alberto called me to tell me that he had also received the emails (from the UCI).
“When I spoke to him today he was not in very good spirits, but that’s normal when there is something pending for so long. At least now he knows that the procedure is in process and he can defend himself.
“Personally, as president of the federation, I hope that the case is resolved in favour of the cyclist for many reasons; because I’ve known him since he was a boy, because I’ve spent many years in the Madrid federation and have been through all the categories, and he is from Madrid. I can’t help but have empathy with Alberto Contador.
“I would like things to turn out well, but now it has to be the competition committee who will study all this and resolve it in the way it considers most just.”