Alberto Contador of Spain tested positive for a prohibited substance during the 2010 Tour de France, which he won. He held a press conference Thurs to formally refute that he has ever used performance enhancing substances. Looking at a two-year suspension from competitive cycling and loss of his 2010 Tour victory, Contador indicated that eating tainted animal meat was the reason for failing the drug test.
The meat could be the problem, states Contador
The Tour de France was something Alberto Contador was looking forward to as the world’s greatest cyclist. Unfortunately, the day before it started on July 21, he tested positive. According to the NY Times, the International Cycling Union said on Wednesday that clenbuterol, a weight-loss and muscle building substance, was what Contador tested positive for in his urine samples that day. Contador made a statement on Thurs about everything. He said the only reason his urine samples had that was because at the hotel, somebody had impure the meat he ate. His other part of the statement was saying he would not have performed any better with the tiny amounts of the clenbuterol found within the samples anyway.
Contador had substance issues before
Contador’s next challenge could be to clear his name. The International Cycling Union suspended him, reports Cable News Network, from racing for a while. Most individuals in his sport are known for drugging. In fact, Contador was linked to the 2006 Spanish blood-doping ring. In 2007 he won the Tour de France for the first time. In 2008 he joined Astana, a team that was banned from the race for doping violations. He won his second Tour title in 2009. Lance Armstrong has won seven times but got third this particular time. There is only one person ever to have lost their title due to testing positive in the Tour de France. This was Floyd Landis who was an American.
Contador is persuading many
Many specialists assume Contador is telling the truth. He very well could have only tested positive because somebody tainted his meat. We learn from Universal Sports that clenbuterol is given to animals sometimes. To speed up growth, chicken, cows and pigs are given the drug. The drug will stay in two places. The liver and muscle tissue are most common. Bodybuilders often burn fat and build muscle with clenbuterol. It is easier to exercise aerobically with the substance too. It gets more oxygen to muscles making it hurt less. It aeffects the body similarly to amphetamines. This is only short term though. But Dr. Andrew Franklyn-Miller, a sports medicine expert, told Universal that it would have been extremely hard for Contador to get a boost from eating clenbuterol-spiked meat.
Citations
New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/10/01/sports/cycling/01cycling.html?ref=sports
CNN
cnn.com/2010/SPORT/09/30/cycling.alberto.contador.banned/index.html?npt=NP1
Universal Sports
universalsports.com/news/article/newsid=494315.html
