"Legal limbo" was an excellent description. I'm sure Contador feels a bit liberated just because he's now involved in the fight. The UCI told him not to tell anyone, even his parents, what was going on, so he had to stay totally quiet and helpless for five weeks. Then all heck broke loose, and the media was full of alleged leaks and plasticizers and anonymous allegations and "experts" who condemned him without even seeing data. Still, he could do nothing as his reputation took hit after hit, and the promised ten days became five weeks. Now it's his turn. He's hired Pellizotti's lawyer, and will give the four lawyers on the Competition Committee anything they need. I think he'll have a good shot against the inevitable WADA case to the CAS, strictly on the threshold argument for a substance that can be ingested without knowledge.

What argument?
He is responsible for what is in his body. Clenbuterol has been banned for animal use for years. So how can he jump to the, very convenient, conclusion that it was "contaminated meat".
If the powers that be let this slide the floodgates will open for any doper to claim "it must have been contaminated food".
Clenbuterol in his sample equals guilty of doping.

Hope you are wrong John calliot cos I think he is guilty as sin

To John Calliott or "theswordsman" or what ever you decide your new name is... laying it on a bit thick aren't you? You've posted almost the exact same comments in at least two articles about Contador. You either work for his PR team or... is that you Alberto? (http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/6315/Contador-claims-hes-confident-that-doping-investigation-will-see-him-declared-innocent.aspx)

The fact is, an athlete is responsible for whatever substance (legal or illegal) is found in his body, period. Whether he ingested CB purposefully or accidentally is irrelevant. Whether the amount is in grams or picograms is irrelevant - there is no threshold.

Here are some facts I do find tough to swallow (pardon the pun):
- that an elite athlete like AC would knowingly eat meat the day before one of the hardest mountain stages in the Tour. Most athletes load up on carbs, not heavy proteins (even AC himself said it was unusual for him to have eaten steak that evening. He said he didn't want to offend his friend. Apparently, politeness trumps winning the TofF);

- that there was enough CB still in its native organic structure left in the steak to be digested, metabolized by his liver and STILL be detectable in his urine. CB has the half-life between 36-40 hours and is very heat sensitive. The cow would have had to have been injected and killed within two days of them buying the meat and that's assuming cooking the steak hadn't killed all traces of the drug. Also, for it to have been detetced in his urine, he would have had to eat the liver and not the meat itself;

- that in a highly regulated country like Spain and region like the EU, cattle have not tested positive for CB since they first initiated the ban. Since it has now come out that AC has a copy of the receipt from where the steaks were bought, it should be easy to trace it back to the farmer and to test the livestock for CB. If it comes up positive, he'll be vindicated and sceptics like me will be eating humble pie. (Anyone think that'll happen?)

Look, we know AC will be cleared by the very "impartial" Spanish Cycling Federation. According to its President, he hopes this matter will be "resolved in favor of the athlete." His reasoning for this? "I've known him since he was very young... and I can't help but feel empathy with Alberto Contador." I have no doubt that the four members of the disciplinary committee will be as "impartial."

Cycling has become a joke. The UCI, WADA, Saxo Bank and the Spanish Cycling Federation won't come down on AC because he's currently cycling's golden boy and cash cow. They know it and he knows it. That's why he could so confidently threaten to walk away from the sport if the outcome did not turn out in his favor. The fact that the UCI were forced to admit his positive test two months after the fact (and because some reporters forced their hand) is telling. The fact that they were all but handing him the "tainted meat" excuse (a double standard not applied to Li Fuyu case earlier this year) borders on the absurd.

Bottom line - noone in cycling wants to admit he doped because it would be massively damaging to the sport. As a cycling fan for over 15 years, I'm done.

With you all the way Art. A very well writen and researched piece.
Lets face it, he is guilty, but the Spanish will find him inocent because he is one of them and the UCI will rejoice because Contador is there number one cyclist at the moment and they dont want the bad PR.
Shame on them all.