David Millar has backed under-fire rider Alberto Contador after the Spaniard was outed as having failed an anti-doping control during the Tour de France.It was announced that the three-time Tour champion tested positive for clenbuterol in an almost-undetectable microdose of 50 picograms/millilitre, which is apparently 400 times less than the required limit of detection.
Contador, a Spaniard formerly on the Astana team, could lose the title he won this year and face a two-year suspension.“I’m the victim,” a visibly emotional Contador said from Pinto, Spain, his hometown, on the southern outskirts of Madrid.
“I’m sad, disappointed, but am keeping my head held high,” he said. “It’s a clear case of food contamination. I won’t tolerate any sanction.”Contador, 27, is facing the loss of his 2010 Tour title and a two-year ban from the sport. But he said he was not worried about either of those consequences and called the positive test an authentic mistake.
“I will not allow a thing like this to destroy everything,” he said. “It won’t be easy, but I don’t think it will affect me.”
Contador said he unknowingly had eaten meat tainted with the banned drug clenbuterol, a weight-loss and muscle-building drug, on July 20 and 21 because the meat at the hotel where his Astana team stayed was so bad.
Contador tested positive on July 21 during the Tour’s final rest day, one day before the Tour’s decisive mountain stage. Though several of his teammates had dined on the meat, Contador said he was the only one to be drug-tested on July 21.
He was not notified of the positive test until Aug. 24, he said, nearly one month after he won the Tour, cycling’s most prestigious race.When asked why it took him so long to disclose the findings, Contador said: “If this case had been solved internally, the image of our sport wouldn’t have been damaged.”He added: “I can speak loud and clear with truth on my side. Justice will be made.”Contador’s initial urine sample and a backup urine sample have tested positive for traces of the drug, according to a statement released Wednesday by the International Cycling Union.
Pat McQuaid, president of the cycling union, did not return phone calls or e-mail messages Wednesday evening, but the cycling union’s statement said that Contador has been provisionally suspended and that his urine sample contained a “very small concentration” of the banned drug.
“This case required further scientific investigation before any conclusion could be drawn,” the statement added.
Amaury Sport Organization, which organizes the Tour de France, released a brief statement on Thursday, noting the announcement from the International Cycling Union.
It is now necessary to “wait for the results of additional analysis” from the World Anti-Doping Agency and the “definitive assessment” of the union, before taking any decisions, the statement said.Contador is widely known as the best stage racer in the world, having won each of cycling’s top three races: the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España. Despite a very public and testy battle with Lance Armstrong, his teammate at the time, for leadership of their Astana team, he won his second Tour in 2009.
This year, even after Armstrong took nearly the entire Astana team with him to his Team RadioShack, Contador won the Tour again, beating Andy Schleck by 39 seconds and retaining his spot as the sport’s top rider.
But he said on Thursday that he was not worried about his Tour de France title being stripped. “My life is made already,” he said. “I don’t need to keep cycling. But I won’t allow it. I will not give up what I really love doing. It won’t be easy, but I don’t think it will affect me.”
Of course, there’s the possibility that Contador is telling the truth. This is what makes it mildly tragic for any athlete in this situation: History has made us guarded against believing anything any scandalized sporting figure has to say. Floyd Landis and his whiskey excuse — which one whiskey company later demanded an apology for after Landis changed his tune and admitted he doped — tripped us up in cycling. Mark McGwire hid behind andro for a decade. Brian Cushing worked out too much. Manny Ramirez was on fertility drugs. The list goes on and on. So Contador’s tainted beef excuse is being met with some skepticism. And with a bit of exasperation at the never-ending string of doping allegations in cycling.
