WADA is prepared to intervene in Contador case
David Howman, the general director of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), spoke to journalists at the WADA headquarters in Montreal to state the organization’s position in the investigation into Alberto Contador’s positive tests
at the Tour de France. The three-time Tour winner was caught with banned-substance clenbuterol in his blood near the end of the race, which he went on to win, and further testing has revealed the presence of plasticisers, which experts have stated strongly
suggest the use of autologous blood transfusions.
The Spanish cyclist’s defence has been based on two points. He claims the clenbuterol entered his blood through tainted meat brought from Spain and he has dismissed the plasticiser positive because the test has not been officially
validated by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). WADA is considering the latter defence, but Howman has dismissed the tainted meat suggestion.
"It's been raised before, it's been heard in a couple of cases and rejected," said Howman to
Reuters. "It's not unusual. The issue is, can you prove it? It's a pretty hard thing to prove, that is where it comes from. The tribunal will make a decision and I'm comfortable with that."
Contador has been provisionally suspended by the UCI while further action is taken by that organization and the Spanish Cycling Federation (CAS). Howman has expressed concern that the UCI will hesitate to take action and has stated
that they are prepared to step in if that proves to be the case.
"It took a year to set the Landis hearing up the first time around," said Howman. “If we were concerned about the results management system and that there was procrastination we can take it straight to CAS and say: 'this is wrong'. The issue for us is when
will they have a hearing? At some stage somebody is going to have to say, 'here is the hearing date'."
WADA’s scientific director, Dr. Oliver Rabin, is giving Contador’s defence a fair chance.
"We cannot be 100% sure it was a transfusion, other explanations are possible," said Rabin of the plasticiser test.
While the test has been supported by its developer as having been used in the food industry, there has been no official confirmation by the German laboratory which performed the test. Autologous transfusions, where the rider gives blood while out of competition
and re-injects it before or during a race, is a known form of doping which was supported this week by former manager Stefan Matschiner, who said that even a small amount of blood would give a boost in performance.
"To validate a drug test, it must be confirmed by scientific literature and groups of experts, and it must be usable in all [WADA-accredited] laboratories," said Rabin. "Extensive research is underway involving populations of athletes and samples from the
general population, but we cannot predict their outcome."
Even with doubt about the validity of the plasticiser test, it still falls on Condator’s shoulders to adequately explain the presence of clenbuterol in his blood. Nobody seems to be buying the meat defence, and even when it was accepted in the past, the
rider was still punished. The precedence has been set that a cyclist is responsible for what is in his or her blood, even if accidentally consumed, and WADA has stated that a 50% reduction in the Spaniard’s ban may be the best he can hope for.
Ultimately, it is the Spanish Cycling Federation’s responsibility to hand out a sentence, but the nation has received a lot of criticism lately for being light on doping. The criticism is not without its foundations, since the five most recent positive tests
have come from Spanish cyclists and at least one Spanish team is the subject of a police investigation. The CAS never got around to punishing Alejandro Valverde after he was involved in the Operation Puerto case and he was not sanctioned until the UCI took
the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
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