Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/16905217

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

And about time too

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

Yes its about time that they come down on these cheats.

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

It's a retroactive ban actually, meaning it'll end in August this year.

Strange case really. Traces of Clenbuterol were found in his urine, apparently not enough to enhance performance, and he wouldn't be the first one to accidentally ingest it. I'm all for a tough stance on doping, but this doesn't seem right to me.

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

Retrospective or not, still good news. Just wish it hadn't dragged out this long

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

Well, it's not exactly an open and shut case. It's no secret that cycling is riddled with doping, nor is it very surprising. Hell, riders in the TdF expend more calories per day than they can physically consume. I agree that doping needs to be stamped out, but I don't think it's right to ban people for what could well have been the eating of a dodgy steak.

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

On the Clenbuterol traces found in his urine l have experience of Clenbuterol myself as when my heart function was 20% this drug has been used very recently in conjunction with a heart assist device on patients with heart failure to stimulate muscle regeneration and from my experience danielf l believe he knew exactly what he was doing and for him to say he accidentally ingested it is just nonsense.

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

Oh, really?

Cycling News Also, The EU Council Directive 96/22 EC of April 29, 1996, provided for the prohibition of the use of clenbuterol in the treatment of respiratory disease. Clenbuterol continues to be sold in 8 member states of the EU where it is approved for tocolytic* use in cattle.

*Of or being an agent that arrests uterine contractions in labor

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

You don't need to take muscle building drugs during any competition, but in the training leading up to it. The muscle building affect remains and can be maintained(for years?) by exercise. Drug levels will have gone down by competition time.

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

It's not nonsense. Clenbuterol is used (illegally) to enhance meat production in livestock.

Just have a look here

I don't know all the details of the Contador case, but he certainly wouldn't be the first one to test positive due to contaminated meat.

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

Perhaps you want to look at this as many believe that doping is widespread in Cycling and you will find many links on widespread doping if you Google it.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ses_in_cycling

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

Yes, that's why athletes are tested out of competition as well. Contador has only tested positive once, and that test only revealed traces of Clenbuterol. So far, the evidence does not suggest he willfully took a performance enhancing substance.

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

erm, whilst your link is informative, it does not rebut people's comments about your earlier statement re Contador......

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

Ermmm. As I said before:

I'm just not convinced that Contador is guilty. The claim that he ingested clenbuterol accidentally isn't nonsense. It's actually quite plausible.

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

Look l respect your opinion but l disagree with you on Contador as yes there have been quite a few cases of Clenbuterol found in some sportsmen but as we have seen in professional cycling that there have been many high profile cyclists found guilty of taking drugs in the last 10 years and as the old saying goes there is usually no smoke without fire and Contador is just one of many l believe that have been found out taking performance enhancing drugs.

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

I know that doping is rife in cycling. I also know that many forms of doping are very hard to spot, and as a result riders are taken out of competition for things like having elevated hematocrit values.

It's just that the evidence in this case isn't very compelling when there are many cases of athletes inadvertently ingesting clenbuterol. I'm all for cleaning up the sport, but it seems that Contador is just being used to set an example.

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

Whoah - hold on there, horsey!

The problem with making sweeping statements like that, is that they can be re-applied to other groups of people.

For instance, I believe that there may be some fraud by some benefits claimants, but according to your statement above, I should be thinking that way about most benefits claimants*.

*I don't, and I won't.

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

Steady on there as l said that there has been many cases of Professional cyclists found taking banned performance enhancing drugs and many people within professional cycling know that this goes on and yet cycling tends to deny that it has never had widespread doping and yet we seem to have rider after rider being found guilty lately and that just confirms that there is still a serious problem in the sport and also what has this to do with benefit claimants as that is a totally different subject altogether.:)

Re: Alberto Contador handed two-year ban for doping offence
 

No-one is denying there's a serious problem with doping in cycling (and few would argue that it doesn't need cleaning up). But it seems that we now have a situation where people do or don't get banned for a positive test based on the location where the test took place. If you test positive for Clenbuterol in Mexico or China it's OK as those are 'high risk' areas where meat regularly contains Clenbuterol. If you test positive for traces in Spain, you get a 2 year ban, as meat shouldn't contain Clenbuterol. This isn't right.