Did UCI action contribute to Contador’s expected clearing of doping charges?

by VeloNation Press, Tuesday, February 15, 2011:

With the Spanish media confirming this morning that Alberto Contador will be officially cleared today by the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC), the reasons for that clearing are being pondered.

According to L’Equipe, one factor which may have led to the RFEC’s Competition Committee dropping the charges against him was what is being termed a procedural defect on the part of the UCI.

The French newspaper states that a letter sent by the UCI to the RFEC last November 8th was not sent to the rider or his legal team. L’Equipe said that Contador’s representatives complained that this was not fair, and that it violated a section of the Spanish Constitution regarding the ‘rights of the accused to be informed.’

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For his part, Contador claims that he has never doped and shouldn’t be punished for eating contaminated meat. He claims that beef was the source of the Clenbuterol that was in his system, that he had no way of knowing there were trace amounts in it, and that the levels were too small to derive a performance benefit. Read more>>