Professional Cycling Sees More Woes

In the matter of 3 days two of professional cycling's greats, Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador, received court decisions that effect both of their careers. As many may remember, Alberto Contador was the overall winner of the 2010 Tour de France. This was the third time the rider had won the Tour, and many revered him as the next great cycling legend. After the Tour de France ended he received news that he had tested positive for clenbuterol (a muscle building stimulant). He had, and still does maintain, that he had ingested this chemical from tainted meat. While farmers do use this chemical to fatten livestock, there is not concrete evidence that this would show up in a drug test if the meat was raised and eaten in Europe. 

The Spanish Cycling Federation heard his case first, and cleared him of any wrongdoing. Contador returned to cycling and went on to win the Giro de Italia in 2011 and finish 5^th in the Tour de France. The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) then appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) claiming that he should receive a full ban. A full ban in cycling is a two year ban and a requirement that an athlete must forfeit any races competed in during the time in question.

This week the CAS ruled with WADA and the UCI claiming that Contador was guilty of doping. This is the statement they released:

“The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rendered its decision in the arbitration between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) & the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and the Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador & the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC): the CAS has partially upheld the appeals filed by WADA and the UCI and has found Alberto Contador guilty of a doping offence.

“As a consequence, Alberto Contador is sanctioned with a two-year period of ineligibility starting retroactively on 25 January 2011, minus the period of the provisional suspension served in 2010-2011 (5 months and 19 days). The suspension should therefore come to an end on 5 August 2012.”

Contador can and most likely will return to racing at the end of this summer, but may always have an asterisk next to his name like so many already have because of performance enhancing drugs.

In a similar case, Lance Armstrong was being investigated by federal prosecutor for the use of performance enhancing drugs in the late 1990's and early 2000's. This investigation was sparked when a former Tour winner, Floyd Landis, claimed that Armstrong "masterminded" the use of PED's on the U.S. Postal Service Cycling Team. This statement came after Landis was stripped of his tour title for doping.

In addition, last summer, Armstrong's former teammate, Tyler Hamilton, went on 60 minutes and told his side of the story:

Although no criminal charges will stem from this investigation, the U.S. Anti Doping Agency stated that they will continue to investigate the sport of cycling to eliminate these issues.

No matter what each court decision stated about either rider, the true test of an athlete's credibility is revealed in the court of the public. They dismissed charges against Lance, but does that mean everyone thinks he is innocent? And when Contador returns to racing and wins a race, many people out there will say that he must be doping again. These issues in sport also raise the question of whether or not we should be spending tax payer money to investigate these issues? Fifty years from now when these athletes are almost forgotten, their records and achievements will always be tainted with the issues they had with the legal system.