Alberto Contador tests positive for clenbuterol, denies guilt
Alberto Contador has insisted that the levels of clenbuterol he tested positive for during this year's Tour de France were not taken knowingly.
On Thursday, the cycling world held its breath after the International Cycling Union, UCI, announced that the three-time Tour winner tested positive at a doping test on July 21, the second rest day of
this year's race.
The UCI held that the levels of Clenbuterol found in the Spaniard's blood was 400 times less than the amount labs accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency are required to be able to detect.
Nonetheless, the body handed Contador a provisional suspension after a second test confirmed the first findings, in line with the World Anti-Doping Code.
"The UCI informed me [of the positive test] on August 24," Contador said at a press conference in Spain. "I had a meeting with the UCI medical staff on August 26, where I explained how this could have
occurred."
Blamed meat imported from Spain
Contador, who is set to join Bjarne Riis' Danish outfit Saxo Bank for next season, blamed the positive test on meat he consumed at the Tour, even though his teammate Alexander Vinokourov, who ate the same
meat, tested negative on the same day.
"The organiser of the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, Jose Luis Lopez-Cerron, planned to come to the Tour and asked our team cook if he wanted him to bring anything. Our cook asked him to get some good meat,
which he did. So when this person came to the Tour on July 20, he brought some meat, which he had bought in Spain."
Contador added that Vinokourov passed the doping test because he, contrary to the Spaniard, had eaten dinner before it. The world number one was also keen to emphasize that he did not test positive at
any other doping controls during his victorious run at this year's Tour.
"I had anti-doping controls on the days before the 21, as well as after the 21, where the substance was undetectable again. This is a clear sign that the system is very questionable, and has to be examined,"
he said.
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