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Tour de France

UPDATED: Alberto Contador’s doping timeline

The positive clenbuterol test of Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has consumed the cycling world since its announcement in September. While he's never tested positive before, Contador's career has been affected almost from its start by doping allegations — often against others.

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The positive clenbuterol test of Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has consumed the cycling world since its announcement in September. While he’s never tested positive before, Contador’s career has been affected almost from its start by doping allegations — often against others.

2011

2010

  • Contador won his third Tour. In late September, Contador announced that he had been informed that a urine sample he gave on the July 21 rest day tested positive for clenbuterol. He vowed to fight the charge, saying the contamination came from some Spanish beef he ate on the rest day.
2010, Contador announces positive test

2009

2008

  • Contador joined Astana, along with Discovery manager Johan Bruyneel. However, as in 2006, doping allegations against others kept Contador from starting the Tour.  This time Tour organizers refused to invite Astana because of teammembers’ doping the previous year, most notably Alexander Vinokourov’s positive for blood doping. Despite the new management and riders, Tour owner Amaury Sport Organisation barred Astana from the Tour and other ASO events.
  • Contador won the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana that year, instead.

2007

  • Riding for a post-Armstrong Discovery team, Contador won his first Tour de France. He inherited — and then defended — the yellow jersey after race leader Michael Rasmussen was pulled from the race by his team. Rasmussen had missed several anti-doping tests prior to the Tour and allegedly lied to the team about his whereabouts.
2007 Tour de France, Contador and chickens

2006

  • Contador was set to start his second Tour de France with Astana-Würth, the new name for the Liberty Seguras/ONCE program that Contador had turned pro with in 2003. However, five members of the Tour team, including Contador, were named in the emerging Operacion Puerto scandal. The Tour banned the five riders from the race and the team pulled out before the start.
  • Contador’s name appeared on a list of nine high-profile competitors now known as the Puerto 9, and his name appeared in several documents related to case. However, the UCI and a Spanish judge cleared him of any involvement with doping and Puerto’s alleged ringleader, Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, told Spanish radio that he had never worked with him.
  • “I was on the wrong team at the wrong time,” Contador said. “My name was on this infamous list, but one week later, the UCI had more time to examine the documents and I was taken off. My relation with Puerto was annulled … I was cleared of any link with the scandal.”

2005

2004

An American in France

What’s it like to be an American cyclist living in France? Watch to get professional road cyclist Joe Dombrowski’s view.

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