Sports court strips Contador of Tour title

MADRID (AP):

Alberto Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title yesterday and banned for two years after sports' highest court found the Spanish cyclist guilty of doping.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) suspended the three-time Tour champion after rejecting his claim that his positive test for clenbuterol was caused by eating contaminated meat on a 2010 Tour rest day.

The three-man CAS panel upheld appeals by the International Cycling Union and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which challenged a Spanish cycling tribunal's decision last year to exonerate Contador.

CAS backdated Contador's ban and he is eligible to return to competition on August 6. The ban means Contador will miss the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the London Olympics, but he would be eligible to ride in the Spanish Vuelta, which begins August 18.

Contador had no immediate comment and is expected to hold a news conference today. He can appeal the verdict to Switzerland's supreme court.

WADA President John Fahey described the court's judgment as "an appropriate decision ... which represents the effective nature of the World Anti-Doping Code".

The ruling came just three days after US federal prosecutors dropped a doping investigation involving seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong. The American was a teammate of Contador during the Spaniard's 2009 Tour victory. The revised list of champions shows Armstrong and Contador combined to win nine of the 11 Tours from 1999-2009.

Contador blamed steak bought from a Basque producer for his high reading of clenbuterol, which is sometimes used by farmers to fatten their livestock. To avoid a doping ban, he needed to prove how the anabolic drug entered his body and convince the panel he was not to blame.

In its ruling, CAS said the presence of clenbuterol was more likely caused by a contaminated food supplement than by eating contaminated meat.

"Unlike certain other countries, notably outside Europe, Spain is not known to have a contamination problem with clenbuterol in meat," CAS said in its ruling. "Furthermore, no other cases of athletes having tested positive to clenbuterol allegedly in connection with the consumption of Spanish meat are known."