UCI takes Contador and Spanish Federation to CAS court.

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UCI takes Contador and Spanish Federation to CAS court.

Contador wants to keep his head.

We don’t want the head of Contador.” They’d settle for just getting him off his race bike.

That was the quote from UCI spokesman Enrico Carpani as he explained why the UCI decided to appeal the to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) the dismissal of doping charges against Tour de France winner Alberto Contador.

Meat-gate as been the biggest, ugliest story in cycling for the last six months. Contador tested positive for Clenbuterol during last summer’s Tour de France. The Spanish cycling federation originally recommended a one-year suspension, but then flip-flopped and absolved him of charges.

“We know that his appeal will once more be painful for cycling. For months longer, we might have more Contador stories. We don’t know how long – we don’t know the CAS timeline,” Carpani told Cyclingnews.

The comedy part of the announcement was the reference to the Spanish Federation. “We have the greatest respect for the proceedings, and that’s why we have accepted that Contador can still ride. We want to get to a point where we can be sure and we can give you the guarantee that we did everything we could in order to get the best decision.”

That best decision being the one the Spanish Federation refused to make and that the UCI now plans to rectify, goddamn it.

However, Contador’s lawyer Andy Ramos says there’s no way the UCI is getting Alberto’s head . “Alberto does not use performance enhancing drugs and that is the end of the matter. He is not prepared to let his reputation and career to be destroyed like this,” said Ramos. “The UCI should not have appealed the Spanish federation’s decision – the compelling facts and science make it clear that “not appealing” is the only reasonable and just decision.”

This is what’s know in legal jargon as a “difference of opinion.” Head, no head, guilty, not guilty, tired of this story, can’t wait for it to end, thrilled by this story, best soap opera in sports.

A head may indeed eventually roll, but ever so slowly. “I am puzzled that the UCI has waited until the very last moment to appeal,” CAS’s Matthieu Reeb told Reuters. “We lost a few precious weeks because of that. If the parties really want a quick decision, ‘we can arrange that. “Reeb also predicts a “fierce defence” from Contador’s legal team.

So off to the court in Lausanne, Switzerland we go. A decision on Contador is unlikely before the Tour de France no matter what fast-track verdict talk there is. (The Spanish Federation’s own case file on Contador is 600 pages long.) That’s a lot of wading thu documents and as Reeb himself said, “I am pessimistic we can make a ruling before the end of June.”

We can reasonably expect Alberto will start the tour in the yellow jersey and under a dark cloud. Chapeau to no one.

By |2019-02-03T16:21:09-08:00March 24th, 2011|Alberto Contador, Saxo Bank, Tour de France|5 Comments

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5 Comments

  1. toothandchain March 24, 2011 at 5:33 pm - Reply

    Frustrating! Makes me less inclined to care about the tour if I know there is a possibility the results of the clear favorite could be nullified. The Clen positive could change the results of TWO tours??? GAHHH

  2. Ricola March 25, 2011 at 3:38 am - Reply

    This is just stupid. Why did the UCI have to wait till the very last moment with appealing the RFEC decision at CAS?

    "We're trying to make everything as painful as possible, of course this is bad for cycling but it is good for justice. We don't care about cycling or the sponsors, the Juridical systems in the Eurozone are in an economic recession and we need to create as much as cash flow and activity in that sector as possible. With the current press coverage and a new generation of lawyers leaving law school, it is of great importance that this thing is going to take as much time as possible."

    • TwistedSpoke March 25, 2011 at 8:51 am - Reply

      Sad times are these and yes, it's stupid that the UCI waited so long. McQuaid says today that appealed becauuse of the political pressure from the Spanish government. It doesn't take a month of review to examine that. Matt

  3. Brad March 25, 2011 at 5:41 pm - Reply

    Dude?…….dude.

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