CYCLING:THE DEBATES are once again raging in cycling as regards guilt and innocence, hero or villain. This time round – just four years after Floyd Landis became the first Tour winner to be disqualified for doping – the rider in question is Alberto Contador, who faces the prospect of joining Landis in that hall of shame if he cannot clear his name.
Contador gave a press conference in his hometown of Pinto, near Madrid, yesterday, and came out fighting after the news he failed a dope test.
“It is a clear case of food contamination,” the triple Tour winner told journalists, saying the Clenbuterol was in tainted meat he ate the day before the July 21st test.
The substance is banned at any level under the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code. Yet one thing in his favour is the traces are so microscopic as to be 40 times smaller than the minimum level which should be detected by the analysis machines. Had the same test been carried out anywhere other than in the sophisticated anti-doping laboratory in Cologne, it would likely not have even shown up.
The amount in question is just 50 trillionths of a gram, an almost unimaginably small amount.
Contador was told of the positive test on August 24th and met International Cycling Union doctors soon afterwards. “On the 26th we talked at length about how all this had happened,” he said, then claimed “the UCI itself told me to my face that it was a case of food contamination.”
Clenbuterol has been detected in humans before after they ate meat from cows which had been fed the growth enhancer. That much is clear; in fact, in some cases humans have become very ill due to the high levels of the substance absorbed. Because of that, and because of the microscopic levels involved, this case is not cut and dried.
The UCI has said it is working closely with Wada on the case and it is not certain Contador will face sanction.
And yet, cycling’s troubled history, plus previous examples of sports people suspended despite unintentional ingestion of banned substances, raise doubts. So too the allegations yesterday of the respected German TV journalist Hans Joachim Seppelt.
Seppelt, the 2007 German journalist of the year, claimed the UCI had flatly denied on Wednesday any positive test by Contador, hours before it finally confirmed it had happened.
That in itself is not hugely surprising, given the world championship Elite time trial was about to take place and the UCI might have sought to delay the announcement.
However, what is more serious are his claims that analyses of samples showed traces of plasticisers which are found in blood bags used for transfusions.
If this latter claim is confirmed as being true, it changes everything.
It could suggest Contador may have used the substance during an out of competition period, had blood taken out while minute traces were still in his system, then committed the crucial error of reinfusing that blood around the day of the test.
As things stand, nothing is proven. His guilt, his innocence, his status as hero or villain are all up in the air.
Meanwhile, the world championships continue. Fabian Cancellara took a record fourth title early yesterday morning, beating British rider David Millar by one minute and two seconds on the 45.8 kilometre course in Geelong, Australia. The German Tony Martin was third.
Ireland’s David McCann was aiming to repeat his 10th place of last year, but appeared to be below strength after having a cold in the run-up to the race. He was 25th, four minutes 52 seconds off the time of Cancellara.
He will hope for better legs in Sunday’s road race, where he and Ireland champion Matt Brammeier will ride in support of Nicolas Roche. The latter learned yesterday he is likely to move up to sixth overall in the recent Vuelta a España, following a positive A sample returned by runner-up Ezequiel Mosquera of Spain. It was yet more turbulence on a troubled day.
