Alberto Contador Cycles on While CAS Delays and Lance Armstrong Takes the Heat

Is it any wonder that professional cycling has a rotten reputation?

In a week that has seen a former superstar—arguably the sport’s best ever—have the blowtorch applied to him over the possible use of performance enhancing drugs, we have the ridiculous spectacle of a current champion seemingly able to avoid serious scrutiny.

The irony in all this being that the former champion, Lance Armstrong, has never tested positive but has nevertheless been the focus of a US grand jury investigation, numerous unproven accusations from former dopers and the subject of rumour and innuendo seemingly since he re-entered the sport in 1999.

Contrast that with the treatment afforded the current champion, Alberto Contador, who has failed a doping test but to date has faced no penalty. He rides, without challenge, in pro tour races and grand tours and now looks set to not only win the Giro d'Italia, but also return to sports most well known and prestigious event, the Tour de France.

Just to refresh your memory, that’s the race that he won last year.

And tested positive to a banned substance.

That Contador has yet to be seriously challenged over the clenbuterol in his urine is an ongoing blot on the credibility of the sport. While the last thing that they need is to have to strip another rider of a TdF yellow jersey, for the sake of sport’s image the case needs to be resolved.

After receiving his positive result for a test taken on the rest day between two hellish climbs of the Col du Tourmalet, Contador set off a stormy debate about how the clenbuterol got into his system.

He has maintained all along that the result came from contaminated meat, although the type of meat and its origin have shifted somewhat as the story has been revealed.

That it was a genuine positive test has never been challenged.

The technicalities of the positive result are irrelevant. Yes, it was a very low level positive. Yes, it probably wouldn’t have been detected in half of the drug testing labs around the world.

But it was.

And although there is a minimum detection level that labs are required to meet, there is no permissible level of the drug that an athlete can have in their system.

And now it is past due for Contador to be called to account. If only the authorities could get their act together.

Contador’s case went before the Spanish Cycling Federation—who initially imposed a one-year ban—and the result is that he still rides today after a successful appeal. The International Cycling Union appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in March 2011 and was promised a hearing before this year’s Tour.

But that’s now looking increasingly unlikely.

On May 20, CAS set down a three day hearing for Contador from June 6-8. Six days later, those dates were scrapped to "give all parties concerned reasonable time to prepare."

The 11 months since the last race apparently not being long enough.

Despite numerous promises that the matter will be resolved before the start of the 2011 TdF on July 2, that is now looking increasingly unlikely.

If they can’t get their respective acts together and instead allow Contador to continue riding it will be a major embarrassment for the UCI and will make a mockery of their supposed tough stance on drug cheats.

Then again, do they still have any credibility left to lose?