Alberto Contador's defence rejects claims by the World Anti-Doping Agency
Alberto Contador's legal team has refuted arguments put forth by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to undermine the Tour de France-winner's claims of food contamination.
After testing positive for Clenbuterol at the Tour in July, Contador and his legal team have persistently argued that the rider's intake of the substance came after he ate meat imported from northern Spain.
But according to Spanish daily El Pais, a report compiled by WADA and submitted to the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC), claimed that the rider could not have been exposed to the substance through livestock, as it is extremely rare in the European
Union.
In the report, WADA outlined the findings of tests carried out at the butcher's shop and the slaughterhouse from where the meat allegedly came, which found no traces of Clenbuterol.
"The legal team of Alberto Contador categorically denies the information published today in some media about the contents of the report sent by the UCI to the Spanish Cycling Federation, which allegedly would undo the theory that the adverse result of Alberto
Contador in the last Tour de France is due to the ingestion of meat contaminated with Clenbuterol," Contador's defence said in a statement that went on to question whether thorough testing had really been carried out.
"All the work of the [WADA] detective is limited to asking the butcher in question if there the meat is sold with all the necessary health requirements, receiving the expected response and saying who their suppliers are. This was taken on their word, without
any kind of questioning."
EU substance tests inadequate
The defence's statement also said that the European Union's testing of prohibited substances is carried out on too small a proportion of a country's livestock to have any wider accuracy.
"According to the latest official report of the European Union for 2008, over a total of nearly 27 million cattle were slaughtered in the EU, but only a total of 122,648 samples (0.48%) [were tested,] of which only 22,518 cases with searches for traces of
beta agonists, including Clenbuterol," the report said.
"In summary, the report presented by the UCI does not rule out at all the hypothesis of food contamination, while lacks the necessary rigor for that to base on it, Alberto Contador could be accused that the origin of Clenbuterol found in his urine is due
to an act of doping."
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