LEAD: Contador set to continue after ban "stronger than ever"

By Ignacio Naya Feb 7, 2012, 19:37 GMT

Pinto, Spain - Spanish rider Alberto Contador said on Tuesday he would return to cycling after a doping ban and plans to be stronger than ever.

'I am going to continue in cycling, continue fully,' Contador told a news conference in his home town of Pinto outside Madrid.

'I am going to continue practicing in a clean way, as I have done all my life. And although right now my state of mind is not the best, I know this will make me stronger in the future.'

The statement came the day after he was banned for two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over a positive doping test at the 2010 Tour de France.

Contador said he planned to continue his career for several years once he is eligible to return from the retroactive ban, which runs until August 5.

Contador tested positive for the anabolic agent clenbuterol. He blamed the result on contaminated meat he ate and was acquitted by the Spanish cycling federation. But the world governing cycling body UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency successfully appealed before the CAS.

The CAS also stripped Contador of the 2010 Tour title, leaving him with the victories from 2007 and 2008, and the victory at the Giro d'Italia 2011.

Monday's ruling came after several delays because there was no conclusive evidence that Contador's test was the result of contaminated meat. A three-day hearing of all parties took place in November.

The judges ruled it was unlikely that contaminated meat was the reason for the elevated level of clenbuterol, but rather contaminated food supplements, for which the athlete was responsible himself under strict liability rules of the World Anti-Doping Code.

'I totally disagree with the resolution' of the court, Contador said. He said his lawyers were analyzing all the possibilities and that he would fight 'until the end.'

'It has been a very tough one-and-a-half years which I wouldn't wish on anybody. A real calvary, which has been even harder, if possible, for the suffering my family has endured.'

'The resolution leaves it clear that I have not doped myself.'

The Spanish media had also voiced its criticism on Tuesday.

'The Court of Arbitration for Sports has convicted Contador without knowing what happened. Every lawyer who reads the verdict must conclude that the ban for Contador is complete madness,' said the El Mundo paper.

El Periodico de Catalunya said: 'Contador's version of consuming a contaminated steak may be adventurous, but court argument is no less daring. The judges banned Contador, not because they were convinced of doping but because they presumed such a wrongdoing.'

Of the sports papers, Marca said that the CAS has lost its mind and spoke of a 'scandalous coup.'

Marca said the ruling violated basic law such as the presumption of innocence.

But Spanish cycling supremo Juan Carlos Castano told dpa on Monday that there is a fundamental difference between civil law and sports law.

'Contrary to ordinary justice, where there is the presumption of innocence, sports justice has liability. On the basis of that and of a not significant negligence, the court has taken its decision,' Castano said.

'It is difficult to understand and to explain, but in sports we live with a very radical code of strict liability, and that leads to this kind of resolutions, which can appear unfair in many cases.'

The AS sports daily, meanwhile, warned that the Contador case should not discredit all sports in Spain and that the country gave the impression of tolerating doping.

The El Pais broadsheet said: 'The Contador case leads the impression that chaos and arbitrariness rule in the fight against doping. Some bodies like the Spanish cycling federation want to clear the cyclist, others demand the toughest punishment.

'But the case shows beyond the legal labyrinth that Spain is more lenient in doping matters than other countries.'

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