UCI President Pat McQuaid stated yesterday that no decision had been made yet in relation to the Alberto Contador case, but the Spanish cycling federation RFEC now expects that cycling’s world governing body will appeal.
“We have up to the 24th of March,” McQuaid told VeloNation. “Our lawyer has started to look at it this week. I don’t know how long it is going to take, the legal department and the anti-doping department will go through it together. But a decision will be made on or before the 24th.”
According to the RFEC, it can only see one outcome. “We are confident that the International Cycling Union (UCI) will appeal the acquittal of Contador,” said RFEC legal adviser Luis Sanz to AS.
The federation president Juan Carlos Castaño explained why they felt this was the case. “Pat McQuaid congratulated us for the work done, but complained of political interventions.” When asked if there was indeed pressure to clear the rider, he denied it. “But those indirect interferences did not seem appropriate. The image transmitted to the outside is that yes, he was exonerated by such statements,” he conceded.
In the days leading up to the decision, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said that he believed “there's no legal reason to justify sanctioning Contador."
Both the Spanish Social Democrat Party (PSOE) and Popular Party also backed Contador’s claims that he didn’t knowingly ingest the substance and should therefore be cleared. In addition to that, Angel Juanes, président of the Audiencia Nacional Española, the highest legal court after the supreme court, said in El Mundo that the rider could not be found guilty under Spanish law. He told the newspaper that Contador “has not doped” and “should be acquitted.”
UCI President Pat McQuaid said afterwards that he felt that undue influence could have been involved. “It’s up to sport to police itself,” he told reporters at the Tour of Oman. “I don’t think it should be interfered with by politicians who don’t know the full facts of the cases and then make statements that are purely political statements. I wasn’t surprised when you see it’s Spain. Nothing surprises me that comes from Spain. But it’s disappointing.”
Sanz said that if the UCI does indeed appeal the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, they will have to work together with Contador’s team. “We must carefully study the weak points,” he said, “and Contador's team will also have to review his argument. We must strengthen the entire dossier before presenting it.” He added that a fourth scenario will be added to the previous three as possible reasons for the test result.
Contador tested positive for Clenbuterol during the Tour de France. He maintains that the substance entered his body as a result of food contamination, with steak bought in the Basque town of Irun and brought to the race by a friend being indicated as the source.
He successfully argued this to the RFEC, which initially proposed a one year ban, but then cleared him altogether. This went against many previous decisions in the case of accidental ingestion, including the case of the American swimmer Jessica Hardy.
Sanz referred to the latter as an example of how he feels the sporting authorities are too stringent. “Hardy sued the manufacturer of the contaminated product which led to her positive, and won the case. However, CAS suspended her a year under the principle of strict liability.”
If the same procedure is followed, Contador will be sidelined from the sport. He would also lose his Tour de France title, plus his recent win in the Vuelta a Murcia.