Contador should stay home

The wheels of justice do turn “turtle-ly” slow. It is frustrating but what can you do about it except to wait?

The case of Alberto Contador is not about life and death of the man or any other person but it hangs like the sword of Damocles over the Tour de France which will start in less than a month.If you remember, Contador tested positive for a banned drug during last year’s Tour. Usually, once the A and B samples tests positive and all those concerned are informed about it, the test result is released to the media. Normally, this will just take a few days. But in Contador’s case, the report came out two months after the Tour, and there was this perception that the UCI, the world governing body of cycling, was trying to hush it up.

Up until Contador’s positive test, he was the poster boy of cycling. A 3-time Tour champion, he was never under the spotlight for doping even if his past associations indicated that he did. Of course, Contador denied that he doped, claiming that the drug came from a contaminated meat from Spain.

In doping cases, it is the job of the national cycling federation, in this case, the Spanish Cycling Federation, to hear the case, make a decision and give out a sentence. It’s basically like investigating, deciding and finally sentencing your “dean’s lister” son for cheating in school. To say that sonny did cheat would be embarrassing to the family so the Spanish Cycling Federation believed in the “contaminated meat” theory, to the consternation of the Spanish beef industry and cycling community, and set Contador free.

To save face, the UCI decided to appeal the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sports, the Supreme Court in sports. In the meantime, Contador joined the second most popular cycling event last May, the Girod’Italia and easily won the 3-week race. CAS, meanwhile, had announced they will make a decision on the first week of July but as the date approached, they said they needed more time to look at the case and would decide after the Tour de France. Contador, after wavering a few weeks ago, announced that he would be joining the Grand Boucle. Of course, we knew all along that he would!

The problem here would be if CAS will say that Contador did dope after wining his 4th Tour, making unfair to the other riders who rode clean as it’s not fun to win by disqualification. That’s why I think that Contador shouldn’t have ridden the Giro and should stay in Spain until CAS comes out with a decision if he wants to help the sport.You can say that he has obligations to his sponsors but I doubt that the sponsors will be happy if CAS ruled against Contador and the case blows over.

If Contador looks for someone to blame, he should look at the mirror and point a finger at his reflection.

Finally, the 4th KIA IRONLEGS, the biggest cycling event in Bohol, will held on July 23 & 24. This time, this will be a 3-event race that includes an ITT in Panglao Island and a road race to the world-renowned Chocolate Hills. For more information, please call race organizer Rey Cimini @0906-531-0860 and 0933-528-5758.