Three-time Tour de France Champ Alberto Contador
Three time Tour de France champion, Alberto Contador, insists that food poisoning was the reason that he tested positive for a banned performance enhancing substance. The Spanish cyclist added that he would “hold his head high” and that he should not be sanctioned.
Cycling’s governing organization, the International Cycling Union announced on Thursday that Contador has received a provisional suspension after a drug test identified “very small concentration” of the prohibited anabolic agent clenbuterol.
During a crowded press conference near his hometown of Pinto, the cyclist told reporters that his failed test resulted from food poisoning caused by eating spoiled meat during a rest day of the Tour de France in July.
Contador denied using any banned substance, adding “Whether people believe me or not, I know I can hold my head high and I’m not going to hide.”
His drug test showed an exceedingly low concentration of 0.00000000005 grams per milliliter of the banned substance clenbuterol.
“Only four laboratories in the world have enough equipment to find it, and in any other it would have been undetectable,” stated Contador. “This is a real error. The system is very questionable and it has to be changed. I cannot tolerate the idea of a possible sanction.”
Contador accepted that with the number of ongoing doping scandals in the sport it was “almost the norm” for people to have doubts about the sport.
“However, I always defend doping controls, and you won’t find a person who is more reliable when it comes to being located for out-of-racing tests. Right now I’m not worried about my Tour results, I just want this all to be cleared up so my family can stop worrying so much.”
