That's a shame.

I'm ashamed, scandalised and most of all disgusted for how Contador's case was handled by UCI and WADA. After more than 18 months of await (during which the Spaniard could quietly keep on racing and winning) in fact WADA's jury finally reached a verdict about the infamous clenbuterol case. And that verdict is: Contador is banned for 2 years. Unfotunately for the credibility of the world of cycling, WADA decided to give Alberto a retrospective ban. This means that the Spaniard will lose all the victories he's achieved since July 2010 and that he won't be able to come back racing before the 5th of August 2012. This also means that the winner of 2010 Tour is now Andy Schleck and that the winner of 2011 Giro is Michele Scarponi.

Now, I actually see some logic in the fact that the Tour 2010 was taken away from Contador (after all, he 'doped' during that race), but in my mind and my eyes the winner of the Giro 2011 will always be the climber from Pinto. His deeds during the 2011 Giro were too good to be forgotten (do you remember his victory on Etna? And the one on Plan de Corones? And the way he controlled the race on Zoncolan, Grossglockner and Macugnaga? I do, and it still gives me goosebumps), but now for UCI it will be as all those victories never took place. In just one day, UCI and WADA have cancelled a part of the recent history of cycling. 

People who'll start following cycling in 2040 (if cycling still exists in 30 years time...) will learn that the 2011 Giro d'Italia was won by Scarponi in front of Nibali and Gadret, but they won't be able to remember Contador's egemony in the competition. Those supporters will learn that Schleck won the 2010 Tour in front of Menchov and Sanchez, but they won't be able to remember the furious battle between the Spaniard and the Russian in order to get on the third step of the podium. Now, two years later, those two riders have both achieved the aim for which they battled so much during that race. Still, Sanchez (just like Schleck) will never have the 2010 award ceremony on Champs Elysées back, whereas Menchov will never have the chance of re-writing his 2011 season. In fact me thinks that, if Denis' second place in the Tour had become official already at the end of 2010, his team would have surely been invited to the 2011 Grande Boucle.

At the same time, Andy Schleck will never be able to know how his career would have unfolded if Contador had been banned immediately after the 2010 Tour. Who knows, perhaps right now Andy wouldn't be so Tour-de-France-centric and perhaps this year he would come to the Giro. Perhaps people (me included) would criticise him less and perhaps he would have won also last year Tour. Actually, this is the thing that annoys me the most about this verdict: even if UCI has the power of deleting a rider's result in a certain race, no one can delete the effects that said rider's presence had on the development of the race itself. Let me explain. 

In Giro 2011, Nibali often tried to drop Contador. Unfortunately the Spaniard was way too strong for the Italian, who often worn himself out because of his useless (even if very brave) attacks. In spite of this, Vincenzo was eventually third on the Milan podium, with about 40 "of delay from Scarponi. However me believes that, if Contador hadn't taken part in the 2011 Giro at all, Nibali would have raced in a much more conservative way and, perhaps, in that circumstance he could have actually won the race in front of Scarponi. 

Let's take another example: Tour de France 2011. During the whole race Andy Schleck was so focused on Contador that he let Evans slip under his radar. And when Contador attacked on le Telegraphé during the Alpe d'Huez stage, Schleck followed him like a shadow; a move that, according to many people, caused the Luxembourgian to lose the race. Now, 6 months later, UCI has deleted Contador's final 5th place in that race. However, who will give Schleck the chance of modifying the final podium of the competion? No one, simply no one.

Another hateful thing about this whole trial, then, is the fact that all these problems were caused by a very small quantity of clebuterol. Actually, said quantity of clenbuterol was so small that people (journalists, supporters, ecc.) weren't even supposed to find out about it. Then a scientist from an anti-doping laboratory made a leak, the press found out about this case and, in less than three days, Steak-Gate began. If WADA had banned Contador as soon as Steak-Gate began, I would have probably agreed with their decision. But banning him retrospectively now, well, this is just ridicolous. Especially because this retrospective ban will be over in just 6 months time, so that Contador will probably be back stronger (and angrier) than ever and won't have to face all the problems that traditional 2 years ban involve (a come back after 2 years in fact involves the search of a new team and of a new sponsor, it can cause a rider to get depressed and it can also cause him problems once he comes back racing, since finding the race rythm again after 2 years of 'rest' isn't easy). Instead, Contador won't have any of these problems. Simply, WADA decided to destroy part of his career in just one day. And, perhaps, that's even more painful, especially because I'm sure that Alberto's recent victories were clean ones.

Unfortunately, as usual, we supporters can't do anything against this injustice. UCI is said to work for improving cycling, but so far it is doing the opposite. This verdict is simply ridicolous and I really don't know how Alberto mus feel right now. To me it seems that WADA didn't care about banning a rider because he doped, to me it seems that WADA tried to destroy a man by deleting all his recent, most important victories. And that's something I can't stand. The cycling politicians have disappointed us once again. And this makes me feel sick. Hopefully when Contador comes back racing in August he'll be able to get many, wonderful victories that will be remembered forever and ever. That's all I hope right now.

Sorry for the confused post, but I needed to get this off my chest.