Vincenzo Nibali wants prompt verdict for Alberto Contador
Italian rider Vincenzo Nibali has said he hopes Alberto Contador's doping case is handled quickly by the International Cycling Union (UCI) and that the Giro d'Italia will be his prime target during the 2011 season.
Contador, who added the general classification of this year's Tour de France to his two previous Tour titles in July, was provisionally suspended by the UCI in September as the body further investigates his blood test from 21 July, which contained levels
of Clenbuterol.
On 21 October, the provisional ban handed Franco Pellizotti prior to this year's Giro d'Italia was lifted by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) after the evidence found by the UCI was deemed insufficient.
Nibali told La Gazzetta dello Sport that he hopes Contador's case does not draw out as long as his compatriot's did.
"I only hope that the sporting justice system can operate more quickly," the 25-year-old said. "You can’t be stopped from riding for a year and then exonerated, thus paying a price for nothing, as happened to Pellizotti."
Giro the target for 2011
Nibali, who did not start this year's Tour but won the Vuelta a Espana in September and finished third overall at the Giro, added that his home country's greatest cycling event will form his top priority in 2011.
"I’m aiming for the Giro. There’ll be the Sicilian stage with the finish at Etna," Nibali said of the ninth stage on next year's route before recalling his first ascent up Mount Etma at ten years of age. "When I was small I rode up Etna from the Linguaglossa
side with my father and a big group of cyclo-tourists. That time, since I didn’t have anything left, I arrived at the summit attached by a rope to the car that my mother was driving. But I was 10 years old."
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