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.

Valverde's points won't help Movistar

Despite Alejandro Valverde’s success at debut race, after a two-year doping ban, his team will need to find success elsewhere, if they hope to secure WorldTour status next year.

Last year the UCI decided that any rider coming back from a doping ban could not contribute towards the team’s ranking points. A quirk in the rule allows riders to accumulate points and Valverde’s second place, in Australia, puts him 19 points behind Simon Gerrans. When deciding on whether a team should have WorldTour status, the UCI look at a number or different things including their ethical merits.

Valverde was handed his ban after a long drawn out case, which came as a result of the 2006 Operacion Puerto. Italy took the first step and banned him in May 2009 and a year later he was given a backdated two-year ban, from all competition. Despite his time out, it looks like El Bala could be Movistar’s best chance of a big victory this year. It won’t just be this year’s points that won’t count; the points ban will carry on throughout 2013.

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.