Contador fails drug test

[rich p]

McQuaid says a decision is imminent!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mcquaid-says-a-decision-on-contador-is-fast-approaching

and calls for four year bans for dopers. Tough guy!

 

[John the Monkey]

McQuaid says a decision is imminent!

http://www.cyclingne...ast-approaching

and calls for four year bans for dopers. Tough guy!

"Fast Approaching".

UCI Fast?

Or Actual Fast?

Enquiring minds, and all that.

 

[rich p]

"Fast Approaching".

UCI Fast?

Or Actual Fast?

Enquiring minds, and all that.

It's true to say that my breath isn't actually baited yet but it may be the end of the beginning!

To use another wartime quote, "It'll be over by Christmas"

 

[Keith Oates]

Yes but Christmas of which year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Canardly]

'Contador’s efforts to go unpunished could be hampered by the fact that Clenbuterol was banned by the European Union in 1996. According to AP, it tested 83,203 animal samples in Europe between 2008 and 2009; just one of those was positive. During the same period, Spain tested 19,431 samples in those years and no traces of the drug were found'.

Source: Velonation

 

[Chuffy]

'Contador’s efforts to go unpunished could be hampered by the fact that Clenbuterol was banned by the European Union in 1996. According to AP, it tested 83,203 animal samples in Europe between 2008 and 2009; just one of those was positive. During the same period, Spain tested 19,431 samples in those years and no traces of the drug were found'.

Source: Velonation

A lack of drug testing positives being used to demonstrate that there isn't a drug problem? And this is being quoted on a cycling website?

This is either extreme irony or someone, somewhere has a very dry sense of humour....

 

[beastie]

A lack of drug testing positives being used to demonstrate that there isn't a drug problem? And this is being quoted on a cycling website?

This is either extreme irony or someone, somewhere has a very dry sense of humour....

Actually I read it as inferring that the chances of Contadors excuse being true were very unlikely

 

[just jim]

Riis believes Bertie was clean:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riis-says-he-believes-contador-is-clean

"I can see no other explanation"

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Riis believes Bertie was clean:

But does anyone believe Riis was clean?

 

[Chuffy]

But does anyone believe Riis was clean?

Riis doesn't believe that Riis was clean!

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Latest news -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/9169082.stm

 

[Keith Oates]

It looks as if there is no going back now, shame as I quite liked Contador but if he must have been very naive to think he could get away with it in the current testing market!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[dellzeqq]

It looks as if there is no going back now, shame as I quite liked Contador but if he must have been very naive to think he could get away with it in the current testing market!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was thinking that very thing, and then it occured to me that perhaps he knows more than we do, and, in his estimation, the number of people caught is a fraction of the number of people offending.

I'm with Beastie on this - what are the chances of Bertie finding the one cow that had had been juiced up? And has the cow done a 10k time trial recently?

 

[MartinC]

There is a problem here.

Contador desn't have a leg to stand on. Clenbuterol in any concentration is against the rules so he's broken them, end of story. Many of us, including me probably, will suspect that this is a result of him being caught out blood doping with a stored sample taken when training - not knowing how sensitive the tests can now be. However, we've no real evidence or proof of this - just a cynical understanding that it seems to be the most likely explanation. The offence he's actually been found guilty of (a minute level of a drug with no prescence in samples on adjacent days) can't have provided him with any competitive advantage and any desire to cheat hasn't been proven by a country mile.

The problem is. If the UCI are going to start testing for minute (to the point of being totally meaningless outside an assumed scenario of related usage) concentrations then 2 things will happen:

There will be a succession of hard luck stories where riders get banned in circumstances where contamination is a perfectly plausible explanation. If the testing regime is perceived as arbitrary and unjust then people will lose confidence in it. How will people on this forum react if Wiggins or Cavendish are next? However clean they are they can't guarantee the provenance of everything they eat and drink.

Secondly you start to offer another way to cheat. Don't bother taking drugs yourself just make sure your rivals are spiked. When you get to concentrations as low as those being detected now it will be a piece of cake for the bad guys to get riders to inadvertently ingest enough for it to show.

You also need to be aware of the where the bodies involved see their best interests. The UCI have a vested interest in making sure cycle racing continues and grows which actually involves retaining some notion of a clean sport. However badly they go about it they're on the right side. WADA's interests lie in promoting their position as the premier body in world sporting drug regulation - if they can kick cycling to death to promote that image then they will. In fact it would prove how concerned and effective they are.

None of this is good news.

 

[yello]

You raise some very thought provoking questions there Martin. It's almost that there's going to be a dangerous precedent set whichever way the decision goes.

There's also the question that not only is it a minute amount that he's tested positive for but also he's one of the few (perhaps only?) one to be tested by this lab (with it's ability to discover such small amounts). Yes, fair cop done bang to rights etc but you can see the 'level playing field' arguments.

Still, it's like an inverse lottery isn't it? That is, if you don't want to win then don't buy a ticket. It's the only safe way. Maybe the problem is so severe that we must tolerate such ethical considerations.