Tour de France - Schleck upset over Contador ban
Andy Schleck claimed there is "no reason to be happy" despite being set to receive the 2010 Tour de France title in the wake of Alberto Contador's two-year ban.
Luxembourg's Schleck, who finished as runner-up behind Contador at the time of the event two years ago, said: "There is no reason to be happy now.
"First of all I feel sad for Alberto. I always believed in his innocence. This is just a very sad day for cycling. The only positive news is that there is a verdict after 566 days of uncertainty. We can finally move on.
"I trust that the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) judges took all things into consideration after reading a 4,000-page file. If now I am declared overall winner of the 2010 Tour de France it will not make me happy. I battled with Contador in that race and I lost.
"My goal is to win the Tour de France in a sporting way, being the best of all competitors, not in court. If I succeed this year, I will consider it as my first Tour victory."
The decision prompted mixed reactions from the cycling - and general sporting - world with Spanish tennis world number two Rafa Nadal leading the messages of support for Contador.
Nadal said on his official Twitter feed: "The Contador news is incredible, there is no definitive evidence and they give him the maximum punishment...LAMENTABLE...keep your spirits up champion! All my support!"
Juan Carlos Castano, Spanish federation president said: "It's very bad news for Spanish sport. For us this journey has ended."
"This is a sad day for our sport," said Pat McQuaid, International Cycling Union president. "Some may think of it as a victory, but that is not at all the case. There are no winners when it comes to the issue of doping: every case, irrespective of its characteristics, is always a case too many."
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said: "It shows that whatever the cost, whoever is involved, the ruling bodies are ready to go all the way. It would be logical that Andy Schleck be handed the title but it has to be the UCI's decision."
Opinions on the matter came thick and fast following the decision.
Bjarne Riis, Contador's Saxo Bank team manager: "The result was obviously not what we had hoped for, but for now our management team is still in the process of reviewing the ruling and the documentation so we can better understand the decision."
2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans: "I really just followed it as any fan. I don't know about the process, it went on for too long that's for sure. That case ran on for so long I don't know what the truth is, or what's right or wrong in that whole situation."
Russian Denis Menchov, who will move up to second place in the 2010 Tour: "Third overall was the place that I achieved in the 2010 Tour and I was happy with that. But I don't want to look back, I'm focusing on the future, in particular on how to prepare myself for this year's Tour."
Italian Michele Scarponi, set to be awarded the 2011 Giro title which Contador will lose: "Together with my team, Lampre-ISD, I acknowledge the decision by the CAS in the Contador case. I'm very sorry for Alberto... This decision doesn't change the value of the results I obtained and my upcoming goals."
Spain's Oscar Pereiro, 2006 Tour de France winner: "Two years of sanctions to Alberto Contador and the judgement says that the doping is not proven. Then? Sons of a ..."
Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara: "It's a bizarre day for cycling and a sad day for sport. It's pity it took them so long to reach a verdict."
Former cycling great Eddy Merckx: "I am disgusted. I would like other sports to go and try to find minute traces of clenbuterol. It's another huge blow to cycling."
Comment 15 - 34 of 34
Whether the decision is right or wrong, taking 566 days to reach it is frankly scandalous.
The pressure is now on Andy to win the tour in France, not in a courtroom.
I agree with a few points made about drug testing in other sports, especially @maxx92 If some of the other major sports like football and tennis had drug testing like cycling does, it might reveal a few nasty secrets. Cycling like athletics are always the scapegoats as they do not attract major money, so the testers have to justify their findings on minority sports. A footballer breaks his leg, after a few months he is back training 6 days a week and competing because of the money spent. If you break your leg its painkillers at best and 6 months off work.
In his last year or two of competition Laurent Jalabert would only race in Spain. I wonder why?
Following Merckx's comment, you do wonder whether cycling is presently the victim of great advances made in laboratory testing- advances that can detect previously unknown traces of clenbuterol that a fraction of the general public may have in our blood stream via eating beef sourced from around the world....
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... or whether we can look forward to a very clean future for cycling, with the last attempts at PED cheating in 2010 now being washed away?
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Evans could win a second tour against a clean peleton!!
#27 Malcolm: The more notable drugs suspect in tennis has to be the Scottish loser Murray...........getting passed the first round has to be immediate cause for suspicion!
Can't work out exactly what Merckx is disgusted about. And Schleck sounds like he's not supporting the so-called witchhunt against drug-users. I would have been more impressed if the whole pelaton came out and supported the zero tolerance attitude, but people who live in glass houses etc.....................
Stuart Lancaster just suspended Delon Armitage not for any unproven behaviour in a nightclub but for placing himself in a position where he might attract negative comment/press. With respect to drugs, cyclists would do well to follow that dictum because, as a keen follower of the Tour, this bllx is turning me off.
i was at the 2010 tour on a couple of stages ..my son was a racing cyclist ..junior ..the tour is probably the hardest sport in the world ...how they do it i dont know ..what i do know is ..cantador had drugs in his body ..whever it helped him or not i still dont know ..but schleck did not and should be the winner ...pity they dont test tennis players more ....because i cant understand how novak was still able to stand ..let alone win
AS sounds like a man thinking"but for the luck of the testers there goes me". I remember a Scottish skier losing his olympic medal after using an American Vicks spray (the American version had banned substances and the UK one didn't) cyclists particularly know they must watch what they take as they will be tested to the ends of the earth.The problem is it is all one big club, if you are caught you take your punishment but don't drag the others into it.The ban should have been immediate he and the Spanish Cyckling Fed have ruined the giro and last years TDF too. AC is a cheat (but so are a lot of others too.
I am disappointed at Eddy Merckx' position. However, agree with his comments even if he doesn't mean it in that way. All sport should be fair and acheived through hard work, skill and endurance of the body and mind. Drugs give an unfair advantage. Cycling reacts first, because it has been the most high-profile drug-tainted sport. But it still has a long way to go before it acheives the level of fair competition, as say, canoeing or rowing
@oh80_us,
Well said man.
I don't know why there is so much talk about Contador. All cyclist before him accepted their ban and never hear about them. They'd ban him for at least 5 years if he was an Italian cyclist!
This fuzz is just because its "Contador" like hes a god or something. Ivan Basso got banned cause he said he wanted to dope. Alejandro served his ban without being tested positive. Give it a break. He had illegal stuff in his blood, that's fact and point. I do agree, other sports should start testing like cycling does and alot of people would be surprised what their heroes are made of.
Greg- Gogole Frank Schleck Puerto or Frank Schleck Fuentes payment. Frank almost got suspended a little after the Puerto thing started. In my mind, even though it was fairly recent, it was still before cycling really started cleaning up, so you can't honestly say that he would have been doing anything different from the organized doping in the peleton at that time.
The riders tend to know who is doing what. If Andy Schleck is saying Contador deserves the Tour, then he deserves it. And for all the Contador bashers, read the verdict. It says, the rider did not knowingly dope, but following the letter of the rules, we have to suspend him. It's the equivalent of the kid in gymnastics who took cold medicine and lost her medal. It's a bad day for cycling, because he was tested to a level nobody else was in history and it seems there is no intention to test anyone to that level again. Not Schumacher, Not Rasmussen, not Valverde, not Vino. Not Millar. Why not? BECAUSE this was a vendetta! Explain why else only one rider in a race riddled with doping over the past 15 years, was subjected to that test! Not to bash the Schlecks who seem really wonderful people, but FRANK WAS CAUGHT SENDING A CHECK TO FUENTES! Why wasn't Andy given the same test? I understand and respect the deicsion. But for cycling, this was not a step forward in the fight vs doping.
Andy Schlek what a mug, doesn't he realise he did win in a sporting way, Contador was a cheat. Unless he was on the same stuff of course.
I am surprised that Andy came out with such a statement. Sounds a bit guilty to me. (There's never been Schleck doping suspicion, right?.......) To all who have said that there should be minimum amounts for doping controls are loony. The dopers will just start using as much of the products as will return a negative control. Well Done CAS! At least one sporting body is staying true to their decisions. Alberto injected tainted blood on the rest day, maybe cow blood. Good Riddance and congrats Andy on your 2010 title!!
To the few neverbeens on here, this is a sad day for cycling , time to change the rules for chemicals ......allowable limits and not micro amounts which have no effect on performance ...read the science .
sad day for the sport its true but its also a shameful day for cas and the uci. after taking so long to come to a decision, the uci wishes to profit from it by the amount of 2 million euros OUT OF ORDER though I am an AC fan the ban is not the rule is every rider is responsible for what is in his body
sad day for the sport its true but its also a shameful day for cas and the uci. after taking so long to come to a decision, the uci wishes to profit from it by the amount of 2 million euros
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