Alberto Contador Found Guilty of Doping, Stripped of Tour de France Title
Alberto Contador has not only been stripped of his Tour de France title for his 2010 win, he’s also been banned from the sport for the next two years. The Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is the highest court for the sport, found Contador guilty of doping. Today, the court took away Contador’s title.
Contador has won the Tour de France three times. He claimed to the court that the positive tests he had for denbuterol was not from him taking the drug, but was instead from him eating meat that had been contaminated. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected Contador’s claim.
The CAS upheld the appeals by the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Cycling World. Last year, a tribunal in the sport of cycling had exonerated Contador. The appeal by the two organizations before the CAS was on the grounds that Contador’s claim of contaminated meat was not proven.
Contador’s ban will be backdated, meaning that he will be able to compete once again starting on August 6 of this year. He has been racing since his positive drug test back in 2010 at the Tour de France. This is only the second time that a Tour de France champion has been disqualified and the win stripped away. Floyd Landis, an American, was the first back in 2006. Landis lost his title after he tested positive for testosterone.
The second place finisher, Andy Schleck, who is from Luxembourg, will now be declared the winner of the 2010 Tour de France. When Contador tested positive, the results were not made public until two months later. Contador said that he had consumed a steak from a Basque producer and that denbuterol was often used as a way for farmers to add weight to their livestock. There was no scientific evidence provided that would confirm his claims.
