Dopador

"These are not racers, they are pedaling test tubes" - Judge Daniel Delegrove (He presided over Richard Vireque's doping case)

Cycling never fails to let me down on a personal level. It's always there for me and something I can always count on. My bike isn't going to ride off without me, unless some a**hole decides it fits him better. When it comes to the sport of cycling, at the professional level, I am often let down. I know all about Lance and the past of other great riders. It was just part of the culture and competition. If you wanted to have a chance of even a glimmer of form you had to be juicing. But, I thought we were beginning a new era of cleaner riders, turns out they are just getting more sophisticated with their means of enhancement. If you haven't heard the latest news yet, Alberto Contador, 3-time TDF winner and winner of the Giro and Vuelta in 2008 has tested positive for clenbuterol and plasticizers. WOW! I thought he was just a freak of nature. His positive test was for an insanely small amount (something like 0.00000006g) of the beta2 adrenergic agonist, which basically speeds up metabolism and dilates the airway, thus allowing more air. Big deal, right? WRONG! Clenbuterol isn't naturally found in humans, so it had to get there by some other means....

Contador at a recent cycling event

Here's Contador's lame ass excuse in his fruity little spanish accent, "I ate a steak that was delivered to me from my native country of espana, it must have contained clenbuterol because I would never take it knowingly." His claim might have some truth if it were 10 years ago, but ranchers haven't been giving their cattle clenbuterol for years in Spain, it has been outlawed by their equivalent of the FDA and no positive tests for clen have been found in a sample of beef in 3 years in Spain!! He's also had over a month now to figure out where this contaminated beef came from and still he has nothing....hmmm.

Why would you do that to Alberto, Mr Cow?

SO, here's the latest theory. In the off-season he was taking clenbuterol to keep his weight down. While training for the TDF he had blood withdrawn to save for a later time when it might come in handy (the TDF). I'm guessing he and his doctor assumed the clen was completely out of his system by this time. During the TDF he was given a transfusion of his own blood to boost his hematocrit and give him that extra edge to hold off the challenges of Andy Schleck. He does. He wins. He thinks he is fooling us all. But the German Lab is really good at finding small amounts of drugs and they also find small amounts of plasticizers in his sample, reinforcing this theory. DAAAMMNNN you, Alberto!

No ban has been given to Mr. Contador yet. This is going to be a slow process because everyone in cycling doesn't want to see this happen. This could have a huge negative effect on the sport if the greatest rider since Lance is labeled a doper. He could see a two year ban from cycling just as Team RadioShack’s Fuyu Li did when he failed a test for Clenbuterol. And professional cycling would be turned on its head.

Here is a great artice as to why any rider would take clenbuterol: Why Clenbuterol