Alberto Contador tests positive for banned steroid

The spectre of doping once again hangs over the sport of cycling after it was revealed that three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador tested positive for a banned steroid in the course of this year's race and has now been suspended by cycling's governing body.

A lab in Cologne found a "very small concentration" of clenbuterol in Contador's urine sample, given on July 21 - a Tour rest day in the Pyrenees. The timing is especially significant as that it was on the next stage that Contador set up his overall victory by refusing to buckle to the challenge of his main rival Andy Schleck as they took on the Col du Tourmalet.

Cycling has been haunted by drug scandals and accusations of cheating for years. Just four years ago another Tour winner, Floyd Landis, tested positive after winning the race and was stripped of his title. Earlier this year Landis accused Lance Armstrong, arguably the most famous and successful cyclist of all time, of regularly using performance-enhancing drugs during his career.

The sport is desperate to rid itself of its tarnished image and had invested millions of dollars on implementing one of the most stringent anti-doping regimes in any sport. But the latest findings, if backed up by the upcoming investigation, could be devastating.

However, Contador is adamant that he did nothing wrong and says that the only way the drug could have got into his system is unwittingly through something he ate.

What's more, the amount of clenbuterol was "400 times less than what the antidoping laboratories accredited by the [World Anti-Doping Agency] must be able to detect," according to the the Union Cycliste Internationale.

But both Contador's A and B samples tested positive and the cyclist has now been "formally and provisionally suspended."

In a statement Contador's team said that "food contamination" was "the only possible explanation for what happened.

"The experts consulted so far have agreed that this is a food contamination case, especially considering the number of tests passed by Alberto Contador during the Tour de France, making it possible to define precisely both the time the emergence of the substance ruling out any other source or intentionality," said his statement. ·