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Spanish sport a victim after Contador ban
Spain's cycling federation chief believes the decision to slap a two-year doping ban on Alberto Contador is bad news for cycling and for Spanish sport in general.
"We should respect this decision but we do not share it obviously," Spanish cycling federation president Juan Carlos Castano said of the sanction, which also stripped the Spaniard of his 2010 Tour de France title.
"And moreover I think that for cycling and for Spanish sport in general it is very bad news," he told Spanish public radio RNE.
Asked about a possible appeal, the national federation chief said: "In any case if the sportsman decides to take ordinary civil proceedings it is his decision. But for us, this is over."
The official said he had been unable to contact Contador because his telephone was apparently engaged.
Contador tested positive for trace elements of the banned anabolic agent clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour de France.
But he was subsequently cleared by the Spanish federation in February 2011.
That prompted the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Cycling Union (UCI) to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which gave its decision overnight.
The 29-year-old Spaniard claimed he had ingested the banned substance by eating a contaminated steak.
