Doping saga overshadows Alberto Contador's Tour de France bid

ALBERTO Contador's doping case is a frustrating saga that will not be settled until after the Tour de France.

Spain Doping Contador

ALBERTO Contador's doping case is a frustrating saga that will not be settled until after the Tour de France.

One maddening aspect of the Contador case is when you look at this Tour, the race itself has solid potential.

True, Contador smashed the rest of the field in May to win the Giro d'Italia and he's the one to beat from July 2-24.

But there's a very good reason no-one has completed the Giro-Tour double in the same year since 1998 - it's such a damned hard task.

Plus, Contador only beat Luxembourg's Andy Schleck by 39 seconds to win his third Tour title last year.

Schleck leads a group of closely-matched challengers who will try to break Contador's supremacy.

They feature Australian Cadel Evans, Italian Ivan Basso, young Belgian Jurgen van den Broeck, Dutchman Robert Gesink and British star Brad Wiggins.

Schleck's form has been so-so, while Wiggins went up in estimations with his win over Evans this month at the Criterium Dauphine, a key pre-Tour race.

Evans has won two stage races this year and has blossomed since his 2009 world title, but he is 34 and reaching the podium might be his best result.

It's also a Tour route full of highlights, starting with the team time trial in stage two and featuring two climbs up the famed Col du Galibier.

Immediately before the famed last stage in Paris, there will be a brutal combination of the Alpe d'Huez climb one day and an individual time trial the next.

On the flat stages, 'Manx Missile' Mark Cavendish and Australian Matt Goss will form a powerful sprint double act for the HTC-Highroad team.

That's the good news - the bad news is the Contador doping case hangs over this Tour like a dark toxic cloud.

We won't know for certain where Contador stands in regards to last year's Tour, when he won for the third time, or this year's Giro title or next month's Tour result until an appeal at the Confederation of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) from August 1-3.

If the appeal goes against him, his results will be struck from all three grand tours and his lofty standing in the sport will turn to dust.

Contador tested positive to 50 picograms - 50 billionths of a gram - of the banned substance clenbuterol during last year's Tour.

Spanish cycling originally suspended Contador, then cleared him, and now cycling's world governing body and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have appealed to CAS.

Contador's rivals are also dismayed that this saga will not play out until after this Tour.

It is grossly unfair for all the riders and another public relations blow for a sport that has done more than most in the last few years to take anti-doping seriously.

But fairly or not, cycling pays an ongoing price for generations of turning a blind eye to the problem.