Contador ruling to come in about two weeks

The Court of Arbitration for Sport will issue its decision on Alberto Contador’s doping case in about two weeks following delays prompted by questions about the panel’s independence. CAS blames the two week delay on recent media reports on the process that raised questions of impartiality, claiming that they had to ask the UCI, WADA, Contador and the Spanish Cycling Federation if they wanted to challenge the composition of the tribunal in light of the reports. All of them declined the offer.

CAS says that publication of the final decision should come during the week of January 31st. Since the 31st is a Tuesday, I honestly would not expect anything until the 3rd of February.

Last week, media reports originated by The Associated Press reported that WADA lawyers came “very close” to walking out of the hearing because panel chairman Efraim Barak announced that WADA lawyers were not allowed to question Australian doping expert Michael Ashenden about blood transfusion issues.

Also at issue was two trips to Spain by tribunal head Barak to speak at anti doping conferences. While his presence did raise some eyebrows, representatives for Contador, WADA and the UCI also spoke at those conferences. Finally, Contador’s team, Saxo Bank-SunGard, trained in Israel last month.

We were skeptical about the early January date for the decision that some reports hypothesized back in December, and an e-mail from CAS to our inquiry that was received earlier in January confirmed our suspicions.