Court of Arbitration for Sport approves another delay in Alberto Contador case
A scheduled August hearing on doping charges against Alberto Contador before the International Court of Arbitration for Sport has been delayed until November.
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A scheduled August hearing on doping charges against Alberto Contador before the International Court of Arbitration for Sport has been delayed until November.
The court issued a statement Tuesday noting that the delay was in response to a request by the World Anti-Doping Agency to allow a second round of written submissions between all three parties contesting the case – Contador, WADA and the UCI.
The hearing, originally scheduled for next week has now been moved to November, but no specific date has been set.
Contador was originally cleared by the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) of charges that he had doped, using the weight-loss drug and bronchodilator clenbuterol during last year’s Tour de France. A sample taken from Contador on that Tour’s second rest day, in Pau, showed traces – 50 trillionths of a gram per milliliter – of the drug. Contador argued that the trace amounts were from beef that had been contaminated with the drug, which is banned for agricultural purposes in the European Community.
Following the RFEC decision, the UCI and then WADA appealed to CAS to overturn the Spanish ruling and impose a penalty against the six-time grand tour winner. Initial hopes that the case be resolved by the start of this year’s Tour were dashed when procedural issues prevented the case from being heard until August. Contador, winner of this year’s Giro d’Italia, went on to compete in the Tour and finished fifth.