Alberto Contador agrees, Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France disqualification
Alberto Contador of Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank is considered as one of the best stage race cyclists of the current era and he agrees with the decision of stripping Lance Armstrong from all his previous Tour de France victories.
Contador, himself returned after serving a two-year doping ban for using clenbuterol at the Tour de France told Marca, “If he has been judged and the verdict was guilty, then I think it stands to reason that he should lose them”.
The Spaniard used clenbuterol at the Tour de France 2010 and the jury disqualified him from all his victories since the 2010 version of the French Grand Tour till his return at the Eneco Tour 2012.
He returned to professional cycling at the Eneco Tour and claimed the fourth overall position at the event.
The ban prevents him from riding all the major cycling events of the season including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the 2012 Olympic Games.
The only Grand Tour he was allowed to race was the Vuelta a Espana 2012 and he rode the Spanish race with perfection, claiming an overall victory at the event proving all his critics wrong.
While commenting on Armstrong he stated, “It’s complicated to give an answer, but given cycling’s current predicament, and it’s obvious that we are going through a bad moment, then perhaps there was no other solution”.
“Thank goodness we are advancing fast in the fight against doping. In my opinion, we need an agreement between all parties - the UCI, organisers, teams and riders - to make decisions and see these things don’t happen again”.
USADA released a 1000 page proof against Armstrong and as many as 24 cyclists recorded their testimonies including 11 of his former team mates.
He has now been disqualified from all the previous victories since August 1998 to December 2010 including as many as seven overall victories at the Tour de France, through 1999-2005.
The American whose name was once amongst the most loved athletes of all times is currently finding it pretty hard to face his fans even after the whole world has already realised his lies.
Tags: