Spanish police cracking down on a drug ring have given Contador fans — as well as the dour Spaniard himself — hope that yes, indeed, somehow Contador did in fact get that clenbuterol unintentionally by eating tainted beef during the Tour de France.
While the excuse seems contrived, the Contador case could rival the truly inspired ratonalization of French tennis star Richard Gasquet, who explained his positive cocaine test as the result of kissing a girl in a night club. Later testing seemed to reinforce his defense.
Contador also can take solace, perhaps, in the absolution of Italian racing star Franco Pellizotti, the bronze finisher in the 2009 Tour of Italy who later was placed under suspicion due to irregularities in his biological passport — a new anti-doping measure that looks at performance irregularities.
The most critical line in the news article:
Pellizotti’s lawyer, Rocco Taminelli, declared: “The biological passport is not reliable.”
If true, at least from a legal standpoint in a court of law, it could doom the whole concept.