Tour de France champion Alberto Contador will find out before the end of June whether he is to face sanctions for a positive doping test at last year’s race, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) indicated Wednesday. Contador career has hung in the balance since he returned a positive test for minute amounts of the banned substance clenbuterol during what was his third successful campaign on the race. The case dragged on for months, until the Spaniard was finally cleared of any wrongdoing by the Spanish cycling federation (RFEC) earlier this year. Both the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have appealed the decision to CAS, which issued a statement Wednesday which suggests a definitive ruling before the end of June.
“The written proceedings in this matter are likely to be concluded at the end of May and the CAS envisages to hold a hearing in June 2011, which would allow the settlement of the dispute before the end of June 2011,” said the statement. “The hearing date will be published once it has been fixed.” CAS said the panel “in charge of the appeals of the International Cycling Union (UCI) and of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the decision of the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) concerning the case of Alberto Contador has been constituted as follows: Mr Efraim Barak (Israel), President, Mr Quentin Byrne-Sutton (Switzerland) and Prof. Ulrich Haas (Germany).”
Contador, who has since moved from the Astana team to Saxo Bank-Sungard, has vehemently denied doping, claiming his positive test was down to contaminated meat he ate on the race’s second rest day. Since his acquittal, the 28-year-old all-rounder has won two one-week stage races, the Tour of Murcia and the Tour of Catalunya. Contador is set to start the three-week Tour of Italy, which he won in 2008, on May 7. The Tour de France begins in the French Vendee region, on the west coast, on July 2.
