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Thursday's EuroFile: Contador says Rasmussen mistreated; Stuttgart world's; Petacchi rides again
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Tour de France winner Alberto Contador said Thursday that the forced exit of Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen, which paved the way for his own victory, was fundamentally unfair and set a bad precedent for the sport.
"I don't know what is really behind it, but I do know that what should not be possible is to be told in the middle of the race that you can't participate when there was no problem at the beginning," Contador said in an interview with radio Cadena Ser.
"I would have liked to have won in another way," he added.
Rasmussen was kicked off the Tour by his Rabobank team while leading with four days left for allegedly lying about his whereabouts before the race to evade drug testers.
He missed random drug tests in May and June, saying he had been in Mexico. But a former Italian rider-turned-reporter said he saw him in Italy at the time.
His expulsion was one of four doping scandals to hit the 94th Tour de France, cycling's biggest event.
Contador, 24, rejected accusations made earlier this week by German doping expert Werner Franke that he was also involved in doping by pointing out that he has not failed a doping test.
"Now you have to prove that you are innocent without being a culprit but what you need to do is devote yourself to doing things well," he said.
Franke bases his claim on documents he says are in his possession from the Spanish police's Operación Puerto inquiry into Madrid gynecologist Eufemiano Fuentes, the doctor alleged to have masterminded doping programmes for athletes.
Stuttgart’s a go
Following an agreement on strict anti-doping protocols, the German government has given a green light to next month’s world road race championships in Stuttgart.
Susanne Eisenmann, the head of the organizing committee and Stuttgart deputy mayor in charge of sports, confirmed the September 26-30 event would proceed as planned after Thursday’s meeting between government officials and regional state representatives.
The event will have a strict program of anti-doping tests drawn up in accordance with the German anti-doping agency (NADA) and the world anti-doping agency (AMA).
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble had warned last month that the event could be cancelled if the UCI and German Cycling Federation did not go along with the program.
The anti-doping measures include stepped up random pre-competition tests, doubling the number of blood and urine tests during week and officials whose sole task will be to accompany riders to doping control stations after they finish events.
Petacchi scheduled to ride
Milram’s Alessandro Petacchi, who escaped punishment despite a suspicious doping test in the Giro d’Italia, will compete in a race in Germany over the weekend, his team announced on Thursday.
Petacchi tested positive for an unusually high level of Salbutamol, a substance primarily used to treat asthma, during the Giro.
He finished third in a race in Graz, Austria, on Tuesday and Milram confirmed he would next be seen on Saturday in the 182km Rund um der Hanleite classic.
The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) had recommended a 12-month ban, but Petacchi was cleared of doping by the Italian Cycling Federation.
Salbutamol is a banned substance but riders suffering from asthma are allowed restricted use of the drug if they have a medical certificate.
Petacchi has such a certificate having suffered from asthma for many years. The World Anti-Doping Agency's prohibited list notes, however, that riders whose urine samples show a concentration of Salbutamol greater than 1000 nanograms per milliliter must prove that the elevated level is a result of normal therapeutic use. If a rider with a Therapeutic Use Exemption produces a level lower than 1000 ng/mL the burden of proof falls to anti-doping authorities, if they wish to show a violation.
Petacchi produced a level higher than the upper limit and was required to show that he did not take the drug orally or inject it and that his use of the inhaler was in keeping with its normal therapeutic use. On July 24th, the FCI ruled that Petacchi and his attorneys had met that standard of proof.
CONI announced this week that it planned to appeal the decision to clear the rider after his failed urine test on May 23.
