Contador banned for drug taking.

Probably just talking to myself on this thread but here goes.

Professional cycling is the best real life soap opera going - it as all the tricks and turns, surprises and shocks that you would wish.

Today the best cyclist for the last five or six years - a Spaniard called Alberto Contador, has just been given a ban for taking drugs - the background story to this as been going on for years.

To cut a very, very long story short a random drug test on a 'rest' day during the Tour de France two years ago found a minute trace of a drug - and I mean minute - but how did it get in Contador's blood stream in the first place?

He claimed he ate some dodgy beef - but no one really believed that!

Well the accepted wisdom is that some time in the 'off season' before that years Tour, Contador took drugs that allowed him to do more training than what would be normal - and therefore become fitter, faster. This drug only lasted in the blood stream for a few days before it became undetectable.

With me so far?

Well what also happens apart from using drugs, is something called 'blood doping', whereby some of your blood is taken and stored, then given back to you during competition - the reason being the more blood cells you have, the more oxygen you can get to your muscles - and the better you ride.

The beauty about blood doping is that it is undetectable - or so it should be!

It is thought that Contador's blood was taken an hour or two too soon - in other words there was still a trace of the original drug in his blood (the drug that helped him train better). If his blood had been taken a bit later the drug would have faded away and not been able to be detected.

This 'contaminated' blood was then transfused into Contador during the rest day and showed up (much to everybody's surprise) at the random drug testing.

Contador is seen as a national hero in Spain - a bit like Beckham is over here I guess - and even the President of Spain had been trying to get Contador off the charges - Spain’s governing body of cycling even went against the wishes of its own president of cycling, to turn a 'blind eye' to the dodgy dealings going on.

Cycling’s own World body had to take them to court to get this verdict.

All very Machiavellian and full of intrigue is cycling.

I love it!

I don't understand cycling.

I've watched the Tour De France countless times and the one who wins the race is never anywhere near the leaderboard.

Surely the winner should be the one who completes all the stages in the shortest time?

Yes, the winner is the one who gets to the end the fastest - and the final leader board does indeed show this.

The race is spread over three weeks - so often the eventual winner will not show on the leader board for quite a while - possibly not until the final week or so.

Cycling is easy enough to understand in that respect - the person who completes the course fastest - wins, but there are a whole load of tactics and strategies that the various teams and their managers use in order to achieve that - somehow I can't imagine Owen Coyle being any good at this sport!

I love cycling for the theatre of it all - rather than just as the actual sport itself. There so much going on - both off and on the road - that the unexpected is always just around the corner!

Great entertainment if you can get into it.

I didn't realise until last night that the Tour De France is the biggest spectator sport in the world!

It's amazing the lengths that sportsmen and women will go to to gain an extra yard or so advantage. Modern scientific technology is so advanced that they can detect the most minute trace of an illegal substance. It is very fascinating.