Image Source: (Cycling News)

BY TOM MARTIN

Spanish cycling star Alberto Contador won the 2010 Tour De France... that is, for eighteen months. Monday, Contador was stripped of his title and banned from cycling two years. The reason? Doping. Here’s ESPN:

“Contador claims his positive test was a result of eating contaminated meat. Only one other rider has been disqualified and stripped of the Tour title, American Floyd Landis for testing positive for testosterone.”

Contador had appealed the test results, and was rejected. Now, he joins the list of cyclists connected to doping -- but as the positive tests pile up, former cyclist Eddy Merckx argues it’s actually a system issue:

"It's a terrible thing. Alberto Contador has won a lot of competitions, not just the Tour de France... He doesn't deserve this … I'm the first to say that we need good anti-doping tests. But I think that in cycling they go too far."

So how far is too far? Tests found a mere 50 pictograms per milliliter of the banned substance clenbuterol in Contador’s system, an amount Spanish rider Oscar Pereiro says could be incidental:

“Two years of sanctions to Alberto Contador and the judgment says that the doping [intent] is not proven … Do you know what I think? He is innocent.”

But not everyone has Contador’s back. Says The Guardian: if the substance is there, it’s on the rider to explain the reason:

“The finding is a vital one for anti-doping, because it reasserts the fundamental principle of strict liability … The verdict will not kill cycling, as its critics claim. Rather the opposite … It has proved that … the [Union Cycliste Internationale] will contest the most high-profile of cases, as far as is necessary.”

And ESPN’s Jim Caple writes, in these cases, nobody wins:

“I'll continue to love cycling despite the scandals, as will most cycling fans. But I also know this: Until there is a long stretch where the winners are determined the instant they cross the finish line … no one else is going to take the sport seriously.”

Contador’s two-year ban is better than it looks. Because he sat out the past year, he’ll resume cycling in August.