Pereiro says Contador innocent but it can't be proved

Alberto Contador willl be “another rider who will be unfairly sanctioned,” according to Oscar Pereiro.  Contador, who faces a one-year suspension for testing positive for Clenbuterol in the 2010 Tour de France claims the results came from having eaten contaminated meat. Pereiro won the 2006 Tour de France after Floyd Landis' disqualification and was only recently cleared of his involvement in the Spanish doping scandal Opercion Puerto.

Pereiro attended the team presentation Monday for Movistar, which last year rode under the name Caisse d'Epargne.

Contador's case “is a complicated issue. Things have been bad for a long time. No one understands it, there are very strange things,” he told the EFE news agency.

"You are either guilty or you are not guilty, there's no halfway. I say he is innocent, but you cannot prove it. It will be another case of a rider who will be unfairly sanctioned.”

Pereiro, who rode for Caisse d'Epargne from 2006 to 2009, was happy to see the team continue under a new sponsor.

"Today is a beautiful day. The arrival of a large company (as a sponsor) is a thread of hope for the beginning of a way for other large companies to deal with cycling. I am very happy and I see that my former teammates are very happy," he said.

Having retired from cycling, Pereiro, 33, has turned to another sport. He signed with the third-league football team Coruxo, but doesn't see much playing time.

"I'm not a starter, but I'm going to win the job," said Pereiro, adding that "the mountain passes do more damage to the legs than kicking the football. "