Alberto Contador, 2010 Tour de France winner, stripped of title

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Category: Olympics, Sports, World
• Topics: olympics, Sports, world

Madrid, Spain (AHN Sports) – Alberto Contador, the 2010 Tour de France winner, was stripped of that title Monday and was suspended for two years from cycling for doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

A three-man panel from the ruling panel upheld appeals by the International Cycling Union and World Anti-Doping Agency against a Spanish cycling tribunal’s effort to exonerate Contador. The cyclist said a positive test for clenbuterol was due to consuming contaminated meat on a 2010 Tour rest day. .

“The presence of clenbuterol was more likely caused by the ingestion of a contaminated food supplement,” CAS, ruling from Lausanne, Switzerland, said.

Contador can return to competition on Aug. 6, due to a backdating of his punishment, but will miss the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the London Olympics.

The cyclist had no comment, but is expected to hold a press conference Tuesday. Contador can also make an appeal to Switzerland’s supreme court, though a reversal in the decision is unlikely.

Contador’s punishment means the Tour de France winner is now Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, though he was not much in the mood for celebrating.

“There is no reason to be happy now,” Schleck said in a statement issued by his team, RadioShack Nissan Trek. “First of all I feel sad for Alberto. I always believed in his innocence. I battled with Contador in that race and I lost.”

CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said the ruling against Contador was solid.

“It is just the application of the rules, the fact that there was a positive test,” Reeb told reporters. “In the end, it is not so spectacular. There is a clear decision based on a positive test. There was no reason to exonerate the athlete, so the sanction is two years.”