Fri, Jan 28, 2011 page20

• Contador’s career at risk

  • Reuters, PARIS
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  Triple Tour de France champion Alberto Contador had the potential to rival seven-time winner Lance Armstrong as a cyclist who grew bigger than his sport.

  Instead, after a six-month investigation into a failed doping test, the Spaniard faces a year out of the sport and the loss of his 2010 Tour title.

  Contador confirmed on Wednesday that the Spanish cycling federation (RFEC) had proposed banning him for a year and left him 10 days to appeal.

  The suspension could seriously harm, if not end, the 28-year-old’s career.

  A man of few words, Contador now must raise his voice to be heard in a sport whose image has already been tarnished by doping scandals if he is to try and clear his name.

  That could involve taking the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the final court of appeal for sport.

  Before announcing he had tested positive for the banned anabolic agent clenbuterol, a reading he attributed to contaminated meat eaten during last year’s Tour, Contador had never let anything distract him from his goals.

  “He is always motivated. He never races just to race. Always going for the victory, always fighting. Lots of riders do many races just for training. Quite a disciplined rider, his routine is never disturbed,” his former Astana team soigneur Yuriy Kulishkin said.

  Contador, who survived a serious illness six years ago and whose younger brother suffers from cerebral palsy, enjoyed a boy-next-door image.

  “One day, when we were having dinner with sponsors and a lot of people, Alberto had to leave the table because he did not want to get to bed too late,” his Astana team manager Yvon Sanquer said after last year’s Tour de France. “He got up and took the time to shake everyone’s hand and had a word for every one of them.”

  Discreet and low-key in everyday life, on a bike the dark-skinned and serious-looking rider has shown his true character.

  He has also mixed with plenty of controversial figures.

  Contador started his career under the guidance of fellow Spaniard Manolo Saiz, a man he considers a second father, who was arrested in 2006 in the Operation Puerto blood-doping scandal.

  He joined the Discovery Channel team in 2007, claiming his maiden Tour title under Johan Bruyneel — the man behind Armstrong’s record seven triumphs. That year he was grilled about his possible involvement in the Puerto affair after media reports said his name appeared in files of the investigation.

  Contador strongly denied any involvement and was never formally charged. The following year he could not defend his Tour title after Astana were banned from the race because of their past doping record.

  However, he won the Giro and the Vuelta to become only the fifth rider to win in all three grand Tours.

  Contador went on to win the Tour in 2009 and again the following year, but the failed doping test turned his world upside down.

  A ban would leave his new team, Saxo Bank, without a leader ahead of this year’s Tour.

  Contador had threatened to end his career should he be punished. The cycling world will be holding its breath to see how he reacts now.
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