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Contador vows to fight 'terrible injustice'

Alberto Contador vowed to appeal his ban © Getty Images

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Alberto Contador has confirmed his intentions to appeal his two-year ban, describing it as a "terrible injustice".

The Spaniard insisted he had no intentions of quitting the sport after being stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title for testing positive for banned substance clenbuterol.

Contador will miss this year's Tour and the Olympics, but he will be free to return to competition in August - his suspension backdated to the date of his failed test.

"My feeling of injustice is terrible. I have done everything possible to show that I am innocent," Contador said.

Contador succeeded in having his original suspension overturned by the Spanish Cycling Federation, claiming the positive result was due to eating contaminated meat, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport believed it was more likely the stimulant came from a tainted food supplement.

"My lawyers are examining the possibilities and as I have said before we have to fight to the end," Contador said. "I will continue in cycling. I will continue to do so in a clean way as I have all my life. And I know that will make me stronger in the future.

"Everybody has been saying that I'm guilty of something that is against my own moral standpoint."

His Saxo Bank team have stood by him and team manager Bjarne Riis confirmed Contador will keep his place on the team when he returns to action.

"The ruling states it's very unlikely this has anything to do with conscious cheating, the most likely reason is accidental intake of a substance," Riis said. "Our trust in Alberto is still 100 per cent intact."

John Fahey, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, claims Contador should now be considered a "cheat".

"The simple fact is that anyone who has a prohibited substance in their system is a cheat," he said. "The only argument then comes as to what was the nature of how that prohibited substance got into the athlete's system. But you're a cheat, effectively, the moment you've got that substance in there.''

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