I have to admit, before today I had never heard of clenbuterol, yet another drug on the list of prohibited PEDs in pro cycling. So did Alberto Contador use the stuff to help him win the 2010 Tour de France? Was he blood doping, as has been reported by some German news sources? Was it an accidental contamination from eating tainted meat as Contador claims?
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Who knows. All I know is that yet again we're getting all tied up in the convoluted governance of pro cycling. Discovered in an amount so small that most WADA labs would never have detected it, Contador had the bad luck of having his sample tested in a German lab that was actually set up to detect such infinitesimal amounts. And now Contador's national governing body will make a determination on whether he doped or was the victim of a Spanish beef steak that just happened to have trace amounts of the drug in it. What Spain decides may be completely different from what Italy, Germany, or United States cycling authorities would decide. How can that be fair?
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So once again I'll make the point that a professional sport like cycling should not be run by the hodge podge of national Olympic committees. Cycling needs to have a governing body made up of three different groups. 1.) Representatives of the various race organizers. 2.) A committee representing team owners and sponsors. 3.) And most importantly, a genuine cyclists union empowered to negotiate working standards, minimum contracts and guarantees. And as the only reasonable and fair doping control, an agreement of all three groups on just what drugs and practices are legal, and which are not. Guidelines on what amounts can be argued as accidental exposure. And absolutely no test results made public until all investigations are complete. I don't really have an opinion on whether Alberto Contador doped or not, but if it was an accidental ingestion of a drug amount so small that there was no performance enhancement at all, why should his reputation be ruined?
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And one other thing. It's time for cycling to stop pretending that the sport wasn't rife with doping. I'm not saying that every cyclist was shooting up, but I am saying that we can never be sure about any rider during the doping era of the last twenty or so years. It's time to declare a general amnesty and then say that after a certain date any one caught gets the book thrown at them. And that means restoring all titles and race results for everyone from that era, including Floyd Landis' TdF victory.
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If Spanish cycling authorities buy the accidental contamination theory, then every other rider who can make a similar and reasonable case who have been banned should be reinstated. I can think of at least two, Tom Zirbel and Li Fuyu.
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