It has taken 566 days, but yesterday the Court of Arbitration for Sport finally handed Alberto Contador a backdated two-year ban as a result of a doping test during the 2010 Tour de France which returned small traces of clenbuterol, a drug which promotes weight loss and muscle-building. The CAS panel did not wholly accept Contador’s claim that he had ingested tainted beef. Nor did they accept the UCI and WADA‘s assertion of blood doping.
The Spanish racing season kicks off with the 21st Iberostar Challenge Ciclista Mallorca – down this year to four rather than five single-day races – raced around the island of Mallorca, the home of many a pro-cycling training camp during the winter months.
According to the organisers, Unisport Consulting, the costs saved from the reduction in length have allowed them to broadcast the race on Spanish terrestrial television.
Here at Velo Voices we love to talk about cycling, and nothing delights us more than the opportunity to talk to each other and to fellow fans about the sport. In the first of a four-part series to kick off 2012, we take a look back at the past year.
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