Contador positive for clenbuterol at TdF 2010 - banned

[andygates]

I've not heard of them on the samizdat muscle forums, though endurance tweaks aren't common currency there. 

As for young Schleck, well, he and Contador were neck and neck, ahead of the field.  Juice for the goose may end up being juice for the gander..?

[rafletcher]

"The experts consulted so far have agreed also that this is a food contamination case, especially considering the number of tests passed by Alberto Contador during the Tour de France, making it possible to define precisely both the time the emergence of the substance as the tiny amount detected, ruling out any other source or intentionality."

As others have said, so what's all the fuss about.   But in any event, unfortunately, most of my interest in the TdF has ebbed away (except the alpine stages), because of the usual drugs issues.

The fuss? Well for instance there was the British skier banned for ephedrine use - from  a nasal spray he bought and used in the US which contained it, whereas the UK version didn't.

Athletes get banned for having substances in their body completely by accident and which at the level tested would not have enhanced their performance.  I don't necessarily think it's fair, but that's what happpens. And of cousre cyclings record on doping is piss poor.

[Hot Flatus]

As for young Schleck, well, he and Contador were neck and neck, ahead of the field.  Juice for the goose may end up being juice for the gander..?

My feeling too. I won't welcome Schleck picking up Contador's crown if he's banned

[Jakob]

Football is a mixture of skill and power though, and drugs don't help with skill.  Cycling is mostly about power (as is athletics).

One of the big benefits of doping, is recovery. There is no athlete who would not benefit from quicker recovery.

[Aidan]

I see Police have found suspect anonymous pills at Riccos house. Can he really be that stupid?

[Hot Flatus]

He's pretty dim

[David Martin]

"The experts consulted so far have agreed also that this is a food contamination case, especially considering the number of tests passed by Alberto Contador during the Tour de France, making it possible to define precisely both the time the emergence of the substance as the tiny amount detected, ruling out any other source or intentionality."

As others have said, so what's all the fuss about.   But in any event, unfortunately, most of my interest in the TdF has ebbed away (except the alpine stages), because of the usual drugs issues.

The fuss? Well for instance there was the British skier banned for ephedrine use - from  a nasal spray he bought and used in the US which contained it, whereas the UK version didn't.

Athletes get banned for having substances in their body completely by accident and which at the level tested would not have enhanced their performance.  I don't necessarily think it's fair, but that's what happpens. And of cousre cyclings record on doping is piss poor.

You refer to Alain Baxter. AIUI he was found not guilty of deliberately doping, but still found positive so the medal was taken away. I suppose one could compare it to accidentally and unknowingly  taking a shortcut in a TT, or having a bike out of spec.

So he lost the medal but kept his integrity. Maybe the same will happen with Contador?

As for the timescale, the testing was performed and B sample checked by the middle of August. Because of the peculiar nature of this incident there has been more investigation before it was made public.

..d

[Chris N]

CYCLISTS. Ensure you have a ready made excuse for doping by sprinkling banned drugs on every meal.

[mattc]

Apologies if already posted, but I think this might turn into one of those classic tour quirky myths:
[From the cycling weekly website]

Contador claimed that the positive had come about after eating beef brought to France by a friend, Tour of Castille and Leon race organiser Jose Luis Lopez Cerron. The problem, Contador said, was that the beef contained the substance because it had been used to artificially increase the body mass of the animal it had come from.

Contador then ate the meat in two sittings, one before the second rest day and one during it. The only reason he had eaten it, he said, was because he felt morally obliged to Lopez Cerron after the Spaniard had brought it all the way to him in France.

What future headlines:
"
Shamed Multi-Tour Winner undone by Loyalty to Friend

Beef with Buddy
"
?

[Bledlow]

It's possible, as the substance is used (illegally, IIRC) for that purpose, & the level of residues in the meat would probably be enough to account for Contador's test result.

Doesn't mean it's true, though.

To digress a little: the coverage of the Alain Baxter case included reports that the doctor who did his test had (Don Catlin, of the Olympic Analytical Laboratory at the University of California in Los Angeles) had delivered similar positive test results on many US athletes (including winners of rather a lot of Olympic medals) to the US Olympic Commission, which had decided that since the consumption was both accidental (according to the athletes) & probably insufficient to materially affect performance, no action should be taken against the athletes, and the results should be kept confidential. Hmm.

Athletics seems to have been dirty as hell, at least up to 2000.

[andygates]

Clenbuterol in beef was banned in 1988, because of fears over its effects.  So not only is it banned, but it's banned because the drug survives into the consumer. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Now I'm waiting for another myth to arise, of secret beef farms were the cattle are illicitly fed clenbuterol for the specific future consumption of top-flight athletes.

[richie]

The finger of suspicion points at....

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/tour-de-france-bans-terry%11thomas-201009303129/

[RJ]

The finger of suspicion points at....

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/tour-de-france-bans-terry%11thomas-201009303129/

 

[Seineseeker]

The finger of suspicion points at....

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/tour-de-france-bans-terry%11thomas-201009303129/

What a fantastic photo of the guy. A legend!!

[Ray 6701]

The finger of suspicion points at....

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/tour-de-france-bans-terry%11thomas-201009303129/

Class  

Edit: had to post this to my facebook page.

[Seineseeker]

The finger of suspicion points at....

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/tour-de-france-bans-terry%11thomas-201009303129/

Class  

Edit: had to post this to my facebook page.

Good thinking!....... Goes off to log on to FB

[andygates]

Meanwhile the serious thinking is considering this as evidence of blood doping: some time ago Contador, after using clenbuterol a few days earlier (half-life 1.5 days, so it rapidly drops to very low levels) bottles some blood.  Come the tour, he loads up on it and the dilute, spent clen is found with the whizzo new lab.

[Hot Flatus]

Except, the question remains as to why he would be using Clenbuterol in the first place.

This will be intriguing.  It'll either fizzle out, or he's gone for a couple of years.

[David Martin]

Except, the question remains as to why he would be using Clenbuterol in the first place.

Give him a bit of a boost in training to develop the better muscle strength and endurance.

[andygates]

It does enhance performance, after all.  These pesky performance-enhancing drugs do that, and as anyone who uses creatine in the gym regularly can tell you, dosing during the low end of the training season means you make greater gains before competition.  PEDs aren't just cocaine-testosterone-and-RARGH. 

It's not so good at putting on muscle in humans, but it's fairly effective at retaining muscle while dropping fat, which is a desirable outcome for many athletes.

My guess, then, would be on dropping weight - it's a good choice for leaning out, which as a hill boy he may have wanted to do, a la Wiggo's corpse-and-nose look.  Not that Contador's a pie boy, but maybe this is why.

[Rhys W]

If he was that worried about his weight, he wouldn't have eaten his mate's steak on the rest day just because he felt "morally obliged"...

[Fab Foodie]

It's not so good at putting on muscle in humans, but it's fairly effective at retaining muscle while dropping fat, which is a desirable outcome for many athletes.

My guess, then, would be on dropping weight - it's a good choice for leaning out, which as a hill boy he may have wanted to do, a la Wiggo's corpse-and-nose look.  Not that Contador's a pie boy, but maybe this is why.

Well I guess we can be certain that Jan Ullrich never had a Clenbuterol habit in the off season.

[Rich753]

This is brilliant ...

L’Équipe Raises New Doubts Over Contador | Cyclingnews.com

There's now a test for teh plastic bag the blood comes in!  How fantastic is that 

[GruB]

Why use clenbuterol? 
Because it can enhance your performance and because you can blame it on contaminated food?
So you can use it during training and have no fear if it turns up in the tour?