Contador ban: why this isn't the end

Finally comes the news that we were waiting for, CAS made their decision on the Alberto Contador clenbuterol case.

It has been 19 months since Contador gave that now infamous positive test and we may still not have a conclusive answer. The Spaniard has 30 days to appeal and could announce his intentions, in a press conference on 7^th February.  If he does choose to appeal, he could have competed through his entire ban and not feel the effects of it.

Whether you think Contador is innocent or guilty, you have to admit that this case has been handled as badly as it possibly could have been. I personally lean towards the side of the two/three-time Tour de France winner. However, if he is going to be punished it should be done properly and should actually be a punishment.

Franco Pellizotti banned by CAS after being cleared in Italy

Franco Pellizotti may have been forgiven, for thinking he’d got off scot free, after the UCI brought him to court for abnormalities on his biological passport.

The Italian has been convicted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, after the UCI appealed the original decision. Pellizotti was provisionally suspended, before the 2009 Giro d’Italia, and has had all of his results since then removed.

He had been cleared by an Italian court in October and even went as far as threatening to sue the UCI. The cycling governing body has managed to get their own back, after the CAS lumped the Liquigas rider with an 115,000 Euro fine. The UCI are applauding this as a success for the biological passport; as much as it is a success, it is another case of one court saying one thing and another saying something else. If a rider is to be banned, they should have a total ban, and there shouldn’t be so many decisions turned over.