Tour de France champion Alberto Contador has welcomed the International Cycling Union's decision to ask the Spanish cycling federation (RFEC) to open disciplinary proceedings against him
Tour de France champion Alberto Contador has welcomed the International Cycling Union's decision to ask the Spanish cycling federation (RFEC) to open disciplinary proceedings against him.
Contador tested positive for clenbuterol on July 21, the second rest day of the 2010 race, and has been provisionally suspended by UCI.
But the 27-year-old Spaniard, who also won the Tour de France in 2007 and 2009, has denied any wrongdoing and claimed the positive result was caused by eating contaminated meat.
"I am pleased that the case has come to the Federation because it means we can move forward," the Spaniard was quoted as saying in a statement released by his spokesman Jacinto Vidarte.
The statement added: "The legal team of Alberto Contador, after receiving and carefully studying the report submitted by the International Cycling Union to the Spanish cycling federation, maintains their optimism and confidence in bringing a resolution to the case.
"The dossier prepared by the UCI and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) focuses on the hypothesis of food contamination.
"Thus, according to documents submitted by the UCI and WADA, food contamination remains the only reasonable explanation from a scientific point of view to justify the presence of the tiny amount of clenbuterol in the body of the rider during the Tour de France."
It continued: "(Contador's legal team) are working with the hope of a verdict in the shortest possible time, with the objective that Alberto Contador can begin the next cycling season without any obstacle."
