Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of the Boulder-based Garmin-Transitions cycling team, said Thursday the banned drug for which Tour de France champion Alberto Contador tested positive does not enhance a cyclist’s ability.
Contador tested positive for clenbuterol, used to increase mass in animals such as chickens, cattle and pigs. In a press conference in his hometown of Pinto, Spain, outside Madrid, an emotional Contador claimed the drug was in filet mignon he ate on July 20-21 during the Tour.
“You get a lot of water retention and a lot of muscle mass, which none of those things seem particularly good for cycling,” Vaughters said. “It does have some stimulant properties and some muscle-gaining properties. So it’s unclear. It’s not a slam dunk like EPO or blood doping, like, yeah, that’s going to make you go faster.”
The amount found would indicate it didn’t help Contador win his third Tour title. UCI, cycling’s international governing body, said the amount in Contador’s two positive samples was “400 times less than what the antidoping laboratories accredited by WADA must be able to detect.”
Vaughters said it will take “a helluva investigation to figure out what the deal is.” In the meantime, he said the cycling world now knows the power of UCI’s new tests.
“If you want to look for the good news in this — and I know it’s crazy and perverted on my part — as long as the verdict on this one comes out right and fair, I’m encouraged by the fact that the sensitivity of the testing equipment is to the level now that’s unparalleled,” Vaughters said.
Contador was provisionally suspended but vowed he would clear his name so that the tests don’t “destroy everything that I have done.”
He has support.
“I 100 percent give Alberto fully the benefit of the doubt,” Garmin-Transition’s David Millar told The Associated Press. “It doesn’t make much sense.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
