An emotional Alberto Contador during his press conference in his home town of Pinto (Image credit: AFP)
Alberto Contador attacks Andy Schleck near the fog-shrouded summit of the Tourmalet.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Alberto Contador (Astana) soaks up the adulation in Paris(Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)
Alberto Contador and his legal team insist that they remain confident about the outcome of his anti-doping violation investigation after receiving the report submitted to the Spanish Cycling Federation by the UCI.
In a statement issued by his spokesman Jacinto Vidarte, Contador said: "I am pleased that the case has come before the Federation because means we can move forward.”
Vidarte confirmed that Contador has hired Spanish law firm Bardají & Honrado and Swiss lawyer Rocco Taminelli, who defended Franco Pellizotti when he was accused of doping after being snared by the UCI’s Biological Passport programme. Surprisingly, Taminelli is also key member of the UCI’s Arbitration Board.
The statement reiterates Contador’s defence that the traces of Clenbuterol found in a urine sample during this year’s Tour de France were caused by contaminated meat.
“The dossier prepared by the UCI and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) focuses on the hypothesis of food contamination, as expected by the rider’s defense,” the statement reads. “Thus, according to documents submitted by the UCI and WADA, food contamination remains the only reasonable explanation from a scientific point of view to justify the presence of the tiny amount of Clenbuterol in the body of the rider during the past Tour France.”
“After studying the documentation received, the rider’s defence is finishing the preparation of scientific reports commissioned over the past few weeks to several international experts, as well as other research and consultation with government agencies that have been carried out in order to provide the National Committee for Sports Discipline Competition with as much evidence as possible so that the decision has the highest legal and scientific soundness.”
Cleared before 2011?
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Despite suggestions within the Spanish Cycling Federation that the legal process could take more than three months, Contador hopes to be cleared before the start of the 2011 season. He has signed a contract to ride for Bjarne Riis's Saxo Bank-SunGard team.
“Alberto Contador and his team of lawyers, composed of law firm Bardají & Honrado and Swiss lawyer Rocco Taminelli, put their trust in the discretion of the National Competition Committee for Sports Discipline because its objective can only be to establish without any doubt the definitive innocence of the rider. At the same time they are working with the hope of a verdict in the shortest possible time, with the objective that Alberto Contador can begin the next cycling season without any impediment.”
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
