AMSTERDAM (AP) — The International Cycling Union says it is supporting Alberto Contador’s right to defend his Tour de France title next month despite his pending doping hearing in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The UCI released a statement on Thursday from a meeting in Maastricht saying Contador, following his acquittal from the Spanish Cycling Federation for taking a performance-enhancing substance in last year’s Tour, “has the statutory right to take part in any competition insofar as he has not been found guilty by the CAS.”
The UCI and World Anti-Doping Agency have appealed the Spanish decision, which CAS will hear beginning Aug. 1, a week after the Tour.
The proceedings can be considered “excessively long,” says the UCI, but it looks forward to justice being “administered properly.”
