Alberto Contador has been cleared by the Royal Spanish Cycling Federation after testing positive for a banned substance at last year’s Tour de France. The 28-year-old has been fighting the finding of Clenbuterol in a sample on July 21st last year, attributing the result on the second rest day to eating contaminated meat. The RFEC’s disciplinary committee had proposed a one-year ban for the Spaniard but Contador’s spokesman confirmed the three-time Tour champion had been given permission to take part in the Volta ao Algarve, starting this week, after the authorities accepted his explaination that he’d never deliberately took a banned substance.
Contador won the 2010 Tour, his third after wins in 2007 and 2009, as an Astana rider, beating Andy Schleck by 39 seconds, but has since agreed a move to Team Saxo Bank-Sungard. Bookmakers remain non-committal about Contador’s possible participation in 2011, however, or the prospects of his rivals should the Spaniard line up and are currently pricing up the event without him. Schleck is a best 4/5 with Paddy Power, while Ivan Basso can be backed at 17/2 with bwin. But there will be no Lance Armstrong, who has finally confirmed his retirement from the sport seven years after he won his last Tour de France title. Britain’s Bradley Wiggins is a 50/1 chance with both bet365 and bwin but he may already be looking ahead to the 2012 London Olympics after the Games schedule was announced this week.
Britain won seven gold medals from 10 events on the track in China and two medals in four of the events on the road. However, changes to the Olympic programme, coupled with the progress of rivals, means such dominance is unlikely to be repeated. Wiggins and Rebecca Romero, for example, are without individual titles to defend following the decision to scrap certain events but will probably ride in the team pursuit, with the men’s final on the second day of competition and the women’s 24 hours later. Mark Cavendish will also be among the favourites in the men’s road race on July 28th and the Manx Missile will be determined to don the green jersey at some stage in the Tour de France this year, though will need more time before he’s in a position to challenge the big guns for the yellow.
February 16th, 2011 / paul - Category: Sports Betting
