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He's due to ride again in the first week of March in the Tour of Murcia. Early TdF betting on here could be entertaining
"meaning that the case could remain unresolved by July’s Tour de France"
http://tinyurl.com/38rskg9
Taking the pi$$
AS will not the ride the TDF either way
hopefully WADA will appeal and he'll get the full two year ban.
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/columns/story?columnist=ford_bonnie_d&id=6069073
WADA rules are clear and he breached them.
The UCI has 30 days to appeal, WADA has another 21 days after that to take the case to CAS.
My favourite part is how Contador has been complaining 'on behalf' of fellow cyclists about how the improved testing, like being able to detect the minutest amounts of Clenbuterol, is a bad thing for Cycling.
.
http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/articles/contador-cleared-of-doping-by-international-cyclin,19237/
CAS sets 3-day hearing for Contador doping case
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Alberto Contador's doping case will be heard over three days next month at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
CAS set aside June 6-8 to hear appeals filed by the International Cycling Union and World Anti-Doping Agency against the three-time Tour de France champion and the Spanish cycling federation.
The court has said it aims to deliver a verdict by the end of June, which would allow Contador to defend his Tour title if exonerated.
The UCI and WADA are challenging Contador's acquittal on doping charges by Spanish authorities in February.
A tribunal accepted Contador's defense that eating contaminated beef caused his positive test for clenbuterol when he led in the final week of the Tour last July.
Contador can continue riding until the verdict and currently leads the three-week Giro d'Italia.
If CAS rules against Contador, he faces a ban of up to two years, being stripped of his third Tour victory and losing all of his results and prize money earned since February, when the UCI lifted his provisional suspension.
The appeals will be heard behind closed doors at the court's headquarters in Lausanne.
CAS previously announced the three arbitrators who will rule on the case. The court appointed Israeli lawyer Efraim Barak to chair the panel, while Contador's legal team chose Germany's Ulrich Haas and the UCI and WADA selected Quentin Byrne-Sutton of Switzerland.
The panel will likely give a decision within two weeks and a detailed verdict later.
The 2011 Tour de France begins July 2.
Now set for August 1st-3rd because of Contador's lawyers requesting a delay.
Another delay of any kind, remarkably, could leave Contador clear to win the Vuelta in August/September and complete the Grand Tour treble with asterisk's placed beside all three. Surely not? (I do believe he could do it and would go for it this year, despite what has been said to the contrary)
Then there is the guesswork of what the CAS will decide? Just about anything is possible, although I'd hope the CAS would be tougher to beat than a biased panel in Spain, who may or may not have been influenced by the Spanish PM expressing his opinion.
The interesting question for me is will LA go to jail a la Marion Jones ?
He is rapidly running out of friends and I see this as highly possible (& deserved) - what pity the European cheats don`t end up behind bars too ...
Alberto Contador gets two-year ban and stripped of 2010 Tour de France
• Andy Schleck set to be awarded Tour title instead
• Contador stands to lose all his results since 2010
Alberto Contador has been banned for two years for doping and stripped of the 2010 Tour de France title after the court of arbitration for sport ruled over the issue. The Spanish rider has been found guilty of doping after testing positive for clenbuterol while winning his third Tour in 2010.
Contador claims the positive test was a result of eating contaminated meat. The World Anti-Doping Agency and the cycling governing body UCI appealed to CAS after a Spanish cycling tribunal exonerated Contador.
Contador has continued racing and stands to lose all of his results since 2010, including winning the Giro d'Italia last season. Only one other cyclist has been disqualified and stripped of the Tour and that was Floyd Landis, the American who lost his 2006 title after testing positive for testosterone.
Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, who finished second at the 2010 Tour, is set to be awarded the victory.
Contador tested positive on the 21 July rest day. The positive results were not confirmed publicly until September 2010, when the UCI announced it had provisionally suspended him pending an investigation by Spain's cycling body.
The 29-year-old Contador blamed steak bought from a Basque producer for his high reading of clenbuterol, which is sometimes used by farmers to fatten up their livestock.
Contador was originally cleared last February by the Spanish cycling federation's tribunal, which rejected a recommendation to impose a one-year ban. Days earlier, the then Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said on Twitter that there was no reason to punish the rider, who is a sports icon in his home country.
After the UCI and Wada appealed the Spanish verdict, a twice-postponed hearing was eventually heard by CAS in November.
The four-day session almost ended in chaos as lawyers for the UCI and Wada considered walking out when the panel chairman, Israeli lawyer Efraim Barak, prevented one of their expert witnesses from being questioned about the science of blood doping and transfusions.
The complex 18-month legal case has also raised questions about the status of clenbuterol in anti-doping rules and the honesty of Spanish farmers. The drug is banned in Europe.
Contador is one of only five cyclists to win the three Grand Tours – the Tour de France, the Giro and the Spanish Vuelta. He also won the Tour de France in 2007 and 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/feb/06/alberto-contador-ban-tour-cycling
Contador loses all results since then plus the 2010 Tour (due to the +ve test)
Misses this year's Tour but is eligible to ride the Vuelta
More like 6 months.
I know what it`s like to train your guts out only to beaten by a cheater - it is horrible and bitter to lose that way.
These cyclists just close ranks when it comes to doping & the only conclusion I can draw is that most of them are cheats themselves - what a grubby sport it is..
