The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld an appeal by the International Cycling Union (UCI) and World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) into the 2010 doping case of the 29-year-old Spaniard.

Speaking from the Lareus Sports Awards in London, where he was nominated as sportsman of the year for his own Tour de France feats in 2011, Evans made a point of sticking up for cycling in the face of widespread criticism of it being a dirty sport.

“Cycling has done more than enough to show it’s doing the right things when it comes to the fight against drugs,” the Australian said.

“Now it's time for other sports to look to cycling and replicate what we do so the fight against drugs in sports can maybe be beaten one day across all sports.”

Evans’s reaction to the Contador case itself was diplomatic.

“I don’t know what goes on behind (closed doors) and what the real facts are,’” he said.

“I just go on and do my job. It’s up to the authorities to deal with all this.

“It all went on for so long I had no idea what was going on or what was going to happen. I just kept reading the papers like the rest of us.”