November 19, 2010 – As reported earlier, Alberto Contador Velasco (Esp), winner of the 2007, 2009 and 2010 Tour de France, failed a doping test for clenbuterol after the July 21 stage of the 2010 TdF. Now a leaked World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report is dismissing Contador’s alibi that his failed test resulted from eating beef contaminated with clenbuterol according to The New York Times citing a report in the Spanish daily, El País. Contador, rode for Astana at the 2010 TdF, but has since signed with Saxo Bank SunGard.

WADA inspectors apparently visited the butcher shop in northern Spain where the beef was allegedly purchased, and a nearby slaughterhouse, but found no trace of clenbuterol. Contador’s lawyers riposted, however, that it is impossible to determine if a steak eaten by the cyclist in July was contaminated or not.

Clenbuterol, which is on WADA’s a banned substance list, is a medication commonly used by asthma patients but that can also be used as a muscle-building and weight-loss drug. It is apparently also used by some farmers to bulk up cattle.

One of Contador’s lawyers, Andy Ramos, indicated that the conclusion of the El Pais story is incorrect reports Bloomberg. And a Spanish cycling federation tribunal is expected to convene next week on the Contador case, but it is unclear if the cyclist himself will appear there. Contador faces the prospect of a two-year ban if convicted.

Former TdF champion Greg LeMond wrote in 2009 that Contador did the 8.5 km Verbier climb up a 7.5 % slope in 20 min 55, requiring a previously unheard of VO2 max of 99.5ml / mn / kg as reported in Le Monde. LeMond said then that the onus was on Contador to prove that he was not cheating.

Read about it in the NY Times here.
Read more here.
Read about it in French here.