Alberto Contador supported by the president of the Spanish National Cycling Federation
Juan Carlos Castano, president of the Spanish National Cycling Federation (RFEC), has declared his support for Alberto Contador, whose disciplinary hearings are still due to be scheduled.
Contador tested positive for Clenbuterol on the second rest day of this year's Tour de France, and has been provisionally banned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) while the World Anti-Doping Agency further analyzes his samples from 21 July.
On Monday, 8 November, the UCI requested that the RFEC schedule hearings for Contador.
"Personally, I hope this case will turn in favour of the rider, for numerous reasons," Castano said, according to VeloChrono.fr. "I know him since he was young, I spent many years in Madrid, where he comes from, and I can not help but be in empathy
with Contador."
The RFEC's controversial past
The objectivity of national cycling federations such as the RFEC has been questioned during previous doping cases.
For several years, the UCI found itself unable to challenge Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde after the RFEC refused to hold hearings against him.
In June 2010, Valverde was handed a two-year ban for his involvement in Operation Mountain Pass after the UCI and WADA appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
"Anything can happen. Including the closure of the file, if it turns out that there is no reason to punish the rider," Castano continued. [The outcome] can therefore range from an amnesty, pure and simple, to a two year suspension."
When speaking to Spanish daily Marca, Castano said the RFEC has three months to conclude the hearings against Contador, seemingly oblivious to the UCI's regulations, which set a strict time limit of one month from when the UCI requests hearings
to be held.
"The maximum length of time to handle a case like this is three months. We must analyze the documentation. We do not have time to see everything, because there is a lot of documentation."
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