Contador: CAS to rule on 2.4 million Euro fine later

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The Court of Arbitration for Sport has issued a lengthy statement confirming its two-year ban imposed on Alberto Contador. CAS also made know that a request for a 2.485.000 Euro fine made by the UCI will be ruled on "at a later stage".

CAS "has found Alberto Contador guilty of a doping offence," the statement read. "As a consequence, Alberto Contador is sanctioned with a two-year period of ineligibility starting retroactively on 25 January 2011, minus the period of the provisional suspension served in 2010-2011 (5 months and 19 days). The suspension should therefore come to an end on 5 August 2012."

The Swiss court also stated that Contador could not prove that his Clenbuterol positive from July 21, 2010, came from contaminated meat consumption. "The Panel found that there were no established facts that would elevate the possibility of meat contamination to an event that could have occurred on a balance of probabilities. Unlike certain other countries, notably outside Europe, Spain is not known to have a contamination problem with clenbuterol in meat. Furthermore, no other cases of athletes having tested positive to clenbuterol allegedly in connection with the consumption of Spanish meat are known."

On the other side, CAS said that the UCI's explanation of a blood transfusion also remained a theory and that the most probable explanation for the finding was from a contaminated food supplement.

"The Panel concluded that both the meat contamination scenario and the blood transfusion scenario were, in theory, possible explanations for the adverse analytical findings, but were however equally unlikely. In the Panel’s opinion, on the basis of the evidence adduced, the presence of clenbuterol was more likely caused by the ingestion of a contaminated food supplement."

In the end, the court based its decision on the fact that Contador could not prove he did not ingest the Clenbuterol on purpose.
"Considering that none of the conditions for eliminating or reducing the period of ineligibility were met, on the basis of the UCI Anti-Doping Regulations, the Panel decided to sanction Alberto Contador with a two-year period of ineligibility. The Panel decided to fix the starting date of the suspension on 25 January 2011, which is the date on which the RFEC proposed to suspend Alberto Contador for one year.

"Furthermore, in accordance with the applicable regulations, the 2010 Tour de France results achieved by Alberto Contador are disqualified as well as the results obtained in all competitions in which he participated after 25 January 2011."