Contador free to race again as ban overturned

THREE-TIME Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is set to line up in the Tour of the Algarve today after the competitions committee of the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) decided to overturn its decision to ban him for a year following his positive test for the banned substance clenbuterol.

The Spaniard tested positive for a minute trace of the substance during last year’s Tour de France and was banned from racing from one year from September. But he appealed the decision on the grounds he inadvertently ingested minuscule traces of it in cooked meat during the Tour’s second rest day.

According to a number of Spanish newspapers, the competitions committee decided to rethink its verdict on Friday last week based on article 296 of the UCI’s regulations, which says an athlete can be exonerated if they prove they had ‘inadvertently ingested a banned product through no fault or negligence on their part.’