:: 28 / 01 / 11 :: Alberto Contador press conference: “I will defend my innocence until the end” Today is a sad day, truly sad for me. It’s a day in which I feel greatly disappointed and greatly deceived. As you know, two days ago I received a draft resolution for a one-year sanction from the Competition Committee. “The way things have been until now has been shameful, the way things that should’ve been communicated officially have been leaked to the press. All this has shown me how down-and-out and how full deficiencies this sport that I love is, the sport that I’ve given my life to and in which I’ve suffered so much to get where I am. And everything so that now, based on an obsolete rule, they want to throw it all in the dirt, so that I lose everything I’ve achieved. Throughout my life I’ve undergone more than 500 controls, many of them by surprise, at home, during family meals, birthdays… I’ve had to leave in the middle of movies, I’ve had to leave my friends in restaurants, but it was all because I believed in the anti-doping system. Not anymore. I do not believe in the system now. I know my responsibility, I know that I’m a point of reference for a lot of people, and I know what I expose myself to, that’s why I’ve never doped. I can say this loud and clear, with my head held high. I consider myself an example of what it is to be clean, and so I find it hard to watch the way I’m slandered every day, the way terrible things are said about me, when the only mistake I made was to eat meat without stopping to analyze it first to see if it had clenbuterol in it. Every time I go to a restaurant, will I have to take a piece of meat with me in order to check for clenbuterol? The people in charge of the anti-doping organizations have to reconsider this case. We’re facing a completely outdated rule, which all scientists know is not up-to-date with the current anti-doping system, which was made years ago when they couldn’t detect minimum quantities which in no way affect your performance, which are physically impossible to take voluntarily, and which in my case have in no way helped me achieve victory. As long as this rule remains out of date with the advances of 2011, cases of false positives will continue to occur. This rule will have to be changed; I don’t know when—whether it will be months or years from now. But meanwhile, what about me, and the people who are in a situation similar to mine? As long as this change remains unaccomplished, honest and fair sport will never be practiced, as I have always practiced it. When I received the one-year proposed sanction, I immediately told Bjarne Riis, and told him that I wanted to go home to be with my family and friends. But I couldn’t allow myself to forget that it’s only a draft resolution and that in these 10 days that I’ve got, I’m going to work as hard as I can with my lawyers so that justice is done. I’m enormously grateful to Bjarne and to my sponsors for their confidence and their unconditional support—it’s unimaginable. As leader of the team, I think that making the decision to leave is best, so that all the riders keep working as normal. I’m tremendously unhappy with the Competition Committee’s proposal. What’s happened during these last few months is beyond belief, and a disgrace. It’s become a soap opera and a political lawsuit with all the leaks, the baseless and malicious comments of WADA and the UCI, which I believe have played a key role in this proposed resolution. In the meantime, I’ve wanted to keep working, focusing on my own business, but I’ve also been on the point of exploding many times because of things that were being said. I could hardly endure it, but out of respect for the process I’ve preferred to keep some distance so that the Competition Committee can work without pressure from me, even though all that has come to nothing. I disagree with this proposal and I’m going to work to change it, but if that’s not how it works out, I’ll appeal wherever necessary in order to defend my innocence until the end.”
