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Posts Tagged ‘Alberto Contador’

In what may be wishful thinking or perhaps a sign that there’s something brewing, Alberto Contador is registered to start the Vuelta a Murcia in early March in Spain.

The Spanish wires were alight Christmas night with news that Contador has been listed as one of the starting riders for Saxo Bank-Sungard for the Murcia tour, set for March 4-6 along Spain’s Mediterranean coast.

According to a report on the Spanish wire service EFE, race organizers confirmed that Contador’s name is on the Saxo Bank roster. Others include Lucas Sebastián Haedo and Jesús Hernández.

Due to the late hour in Europe, VeloNews could not independently confirm the news.

Whether that’s just a procedural matter by Saxo Bank brass or a gesture of solidarity for its embattled star remains to be seen.

Teams will often send names to race organizers simply to fill in a rough draft of what races athletes might participate only to see the final rosters altered due to injuries, illnesses and other changes in racing schedules. Teams are also required to register riders at least 20 days before the start of an event.

The appearance of Contador’s name on the preliminary start list, however, could be a sign that there may be news coming soon for the Contador camp.

The Spanish rider is anxiously waiting to hear his fate ever since he was temporarily banned from racing after testing positive for traces of clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour de France. He blames the positive test on contaminated steaks.

Contador’s press attaché Jacinto Vidarte told VeloNews on Thursday that they don’t know when a decision would be forthcoming from a four-member panel empowered by the Spanish cycling federation to review his case. An interview with the Spanish cycling federation president last week suggested a decision wouldn’t be likely until mid-January.

But perhaps Contador received a hint that there could be good news coming down the pipe.

Contador suddenly “reappeared” on his Twitter account Friday after a three-week silence and sounded optimistic in the three messages he posted, promising that 2011 would be “HISTORIC” (his emphasis).

“Hello, long time — this will not be my best Christmas or the quietest. I hope that in 2011, coherence, ethics and truth will prevail to do justice,” Contador wrote. Also thanking his teammates at Saxo Bank-Sungard, he added: “Next year will be HISTORIC. Querer es poder (where there’s a will, there’s a way), Merry Christmas.”

If the Spanish cycling federation were to clear Contador, however, it likely wouldn’t be the end of the story. Both the UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency can appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, a process that would likely drag on for months.

In what’s a clear sign of what Contador can likely expect, WADA recently filed motions to appeal a decision to the German table tennis association to not ban Dimitrij Ovtcharov, who also claimed he triggered a false clenbuterol positive after eating meat on a trip to China.

A recent spate of clenbuterol positives has prompted Spain’s professional athlete’s association to raise the alarm over their collective fear of doping cases triggered by digesting tainted food.

Coming on the heels of the high-profile Alberto Contador case — which has opened the debate of clenbuterol and the possibility of a false positive from eating contaminated meat — representatives of the Asociación de Deportistas, led by ex-tennis star Emilion Sánchez Vicario, have formally approached Spain’s anti-doping agency about their concerns of competing beyond Europe.

The Spanish daily Sport published a copy of the letter Sánchez Vicario wrote to officials on November 30, asking them to clarify rules and offer some sort of protection against a false positive triggered by eating contaminated food.

The story reported that Javier Martín del Burgo, director of the Spanish anti-doping agency (AEA), vowed to take a challenge to the World Anti-Doping Agency to create some of universal minimum standard for detecting levels of clenbuterol. That would be a direct challenge to current WADA rules outlining “strict liability” — that if a substance is found in an athlete’s body, they athlete is responsible for it no matter how got it there.

Other than the obvious of sticking to a vegetarian diet while abroad, Sport reported that some Spanish athletes have even skipped competitions in South America for fear of contamination and a possible positive case.

Clenbuterol has been banned in Europe since the mid-1990s, but there have been several doping cases involving athletes who have competed beyond the European Union and later tested positive.

Earlier this month, Dutch mountain biker Rudy van Houts became the latest athlete to test positive for clenbuterol, this time after competing in Mexico in October.

Ukrainian-born German table tennis star Dimitrij Ovtcharov was cleared of clenbuterol charges by the German table tennis association after he claims he triggered a false positive after eating meat on a trip to China. That ruling is being challenged by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Contador, who claims he ate contaminated meat during a rest day late in the 2010 Tour de France, is awaiting a decision by the four-member competition committee of the Spanish cycling federation.

Beleaguered Tour de France champion Alberto Contador on Monday “categorically denied” reports by a Spanish magazine that links him to Javier Fernández Alba, a Madrid-based trainer and manager reportedly under investigation by authorities for trafficking of doping products.

The Spanish monthly magazine Interviú – known for its racy photographs and in-depth reporting — published in its latest issue a story that allegedly links Contador to Alba and goes so far as to call Alba “Contador’s manager, discoverer and trainer.”

On Monday, Contador shot back by denying links to Alba, who is also the president of the Madrid chapter of the Spanish cycling federation.

“I have never had a relation with this gentleman,” Contador said in a statement Monday. “And I don’t even know where this center is that he directs.”

The story in Interviú cites police reports in Asturias that put Alba at center of a new doping investigation following a positive doping test from one of Alba’s clients in the Spanish national master’s championship this summer.

The magazine also cited unnamed sources that Alba works as a trainer for up to 200 athletes and charges between “200 and 500 euros” for his services at the gym in the outskirts of Madrid called SPE (Salus per Exercitacione) where Alba allegedly operates.

The magazine also alleges that it was Alba who recommended Contador to his first amateur team and said that he was an early manager and trainer for the three-time Tour de France champion.

Contador — who is fending off doping allegations from this summer’s Tour de France — said he’s never worked with Alba.

“Alberto Contador has never had Fernández Alba as a manager much less as a trainer, and he’s never been to the SPE center in Majadahonda,” a statement read. “When Contador signed up with the Velo Club Portillo, Fernández Alba had already left the club and his relationship with him was nothing more than through the Madrid chapter of the national federation, of which he was the technical director.”

Alba backed up Contador’s claims that the two have never worked together. In a statement posted on the Madrid cycling federation’s web page, he strongly denied the allegations of Interviú’s story and confirmed that he never worked with Contador.

“My professional activity has never consisted of prescribing, supplying, selling, etc., medicines to any athlete,” he wrote. “I am a long-time teacher and my job is to prepare (athletes) for physical training.”

He also denied that he’s being investigated by any court or legal authority in Spain and vowed to take legal action against the magazine for what he described as a “distorted and manipulated” report.

Contador recently returned from a two-week training camp with his new Saxo Bank teammates in Fuerteventura and is awaiting the decision about his fate, now in the hands of a four-member panel of the Spanish cycling federation.