Contador defence bid to delay CAS hearing

Three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador’s defence team are looking for a delay of June’s doping hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), sources close to the rider said yesterday.

The doping case concerning Contador is due to be heard before CAS over three days in Lausanne from June 6-8 to have the decision before the start of the Tour de France on July 2.

Contador, who looks set to win the Tour of Italy, wants to become the first rider since 1998 to complete a double of the Giro and Tour de France.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and world’s cycling’s governing body (UCI) are appealing the Spanish cycling federation’s (RFEC) decision to acquit Contador over a failed doping case.

Contador tested positive for a tiny amount of the banned muscle-building substance clenbuterol during last July’s Tour, which he went on to win.

But he was cleared to compete when the RFEC rescinded a decision to hand down a one-year competition ban, accepting the rider’s claim that he had unknowingly consumed drug-contaminated meat and was therefore not negligent.

UCI president Pat McQuaid said the UCI had been left with no choice but to appeal the RFEC decision because the case had suffered from political interference in Spain.