Contador controversy hanging over tour

Alberto Contador. Photo / Supplied

Only the Tour de France. The drug-scarred race which somehow manages to keep going in spite of it all, will have a unique and bizarre focus this year: 2011 is the year when second place could reign supreme.

That's if 2010 winner Alberto Contador wins again this year. He's the favourite - but is subject to a court case next month which could strip him of his title last year; and thus any right to compete in this year's version.

So whoever finishes second to Contador - if that's how it pans out - could be in second place on the podium in July but Tour winner in August. The Tour, sadly, is no stranger to winners not being winners and placegetters attaining a higher place than originally allotted. Acknowledged doper Floyd Landis won in 2006 before being stripped and 1996 champion Bjarne Riis later confessed to using EPO, cortisone and human growth hormone. There have been countless other cases of drugs.

However, if Contador sat out the Tour only for the court to clear him in the months ahead, as his own Spanish federation did in February, then he would have suffered a wrong that could never be righted. So it was easier to let him race - and then strip him and juggle the podium finishers if things should work out that way. Crazy? Maybe.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport will decide whether Contador is responsible for the clenbuterol that washed through his system at the Tour last year. If his only mistake in winning last year was to eat a clenbuterol-tainted filet mignon on a rest day, which is what he says happened, then that shouldn't cause him to miss this opportunity to win again.

It took cycling's governing body, the UCI, a month to inform Contador of his positive test and another month before it went public. Spain took what seemed like an age to hear and clear Contador. The UCI and the World Anti- Doping Agency then dallied until late March to appeal that Spanish ruling to the CAS. Finally, a planned CAS hearing in early June that could have settled this whole affair in time for the Tour was pushed back to August 1-3, post-Tour, because Contador's lawyers - he's changed his counsels a couple of times - wanted more time to prepare. Contador's reputation and livelihood are at stake. The science of drug testing is complicated, even more so in this case where the amounts of clenbuterol detected were tiny and where there is evidence that the drug does sometimes leak into the food chain, because farmers illegally use it to bulk up farm animals.

Even before the CAS appeal, the evidence dosier had swelled to more than 600 pages, says a lawyer who has studied it. If Contador convinces the court that he consumed the drug inadvertently, the ruling may help other clenbuterol-positive athletes who also blame bad food. So justice has not been rushed. Contador will again be going head to head with Andy Schleck (Luxembourg). They were born to climb and it will take an Act of God for them not to occupy the top two slots. But the British, led by an in-form Bradley Wiggins, are also poised to make a significant challenge. Wiggins and his Sky team (the ones that could find no place for crack New Zealander Greg Henderson), are unrecognisable from last year when they talked a good game but failed to deliver.

This year they have performed strongly across the board all season and Wiggins is enjoying his best road season: third in the Paris-Nice race, a convincing win over 'unbeatable' Fabian Cancellara in the time-trial in the Bayern Rundfahrt and then a superb win in the prestigious Dauphiné Libéré last month. "We are very different this time round, the demeanour of the team is very different," insists Sky Team principal Dave Brailsford.

"If I am honest, last year we had a group of individuals who rode together as a team, whereas this year we are a proper team going into the race."

Brailsford was quick to dismiss perceived criticism of Wiggins: "Anybody who doubts his ability doesn't know the first thing about cycling. The guy is a class act. It's about getting him in the right form with the right group of people around him, giving him the confidence to perform to the best of his ability. He has got himself into great shape."

Wiggins isn't the only star for Sky this year. An untimely dose of shingles may yet deprive them of Edvald Boasson Hagen who has looked back to his best but Geraint Thomas is capable of stage wins and young British sprinter Ben Swift (selected ahead of Henderson) is more than capable of making his presence felt on debut, especially on days when there are small climbs before the sprint.

The stage that will decide the race is stage 18 - on July 21. Pinerolo (Itlay) to Col du Galibier (125 miles). This is the big one, a day that features 15,320ft of ascent on three hors catégorie brutes and culminates in the highest-ever finish in the Tour de France, with the survivors climbing off at the top of the Col du Galibier which tops out at 2,645m.

- Agencies