World Anti-Doping Agency report undermines Alberto Contador's defence
The defence team of doping-accused cyclist Alberto Contador is likely to suffer from the findings of a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that undermines the rider's claims of inadvertent food contamination.
The Tour de France champion tested positive for Clenbuterol on the second rest day of this year's Tour, and has blamed contaminated meat for the findings.
Contador has claimed that on 20 and 21 July, his team ate meat that had been imported from northern Spain, where Jose Luis Lopez Cerron had visited a butcher in the town of Irun.
But in its report, which has been examined by Spanish daily El Pais after being submitted to the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) by the International Cycling Union (UCI), WADA said that none of the tests it carried out at the butcher's shop, nor
at the slaughterhouse from which its meat is purchased, revealed any traces of Clenbuterol.
WADA: Clenbuterol extremely rare in livestock
The European Union banned the use of Clenbuterol in livestock in 1996, and WADA is said to have cited an EU report that found that only one of 300,000 meat samples tested in 2008 was found to have any traces of the substance.
In addition, the report read that even breeders who do inject Clenbuterol into their animals tend to wait for the substance to leave the livestock before slaughter.
"Evidently, the cattle breeders who are breaking the rules don’t slaughter animals that have been illegally fattened up until 20 days have passed since the last dose of Clenbuterol for two reasons: firstly to avoid being caught in controls carried out on
meat and also to allow the anabolic steroid to have its full effect in fattening up the meat,"
El Pais quoted the report as saying.
Contador's defence, led by Swiss lawyer Rocco Taminelli, is currently preparing its case ahead of the rider's hearings with the RFEC.
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