Joining the elite club...

So another great athlete goes down in my book under 'Not a Fan Of'. The newest inductee to join this elite club, along with LeBron James and Derek Jeter, among others, is 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans. I wasn't a big fan of him to begin with, but his response to Contador's suspension just sealed the deal. I'm just upset that my favorite rider, Hushovd, signed with Evans' team, BMC

Evans: Contador suspension shows cycling in forefront of anti-doping

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/evans-contador-suspension-shows-cycling-in-forefront-of-anti-doping) 

Disqualifying and banning the winner of the 2010 Tour de France shows that cycling is leading in the sports world's fight against doping, said Cadel Evans. The BMC Racing Team rider, who won the 2011 Tour de France, supported the decision to ban Alberto Contador for two years, while decrying the fact that the process took so long.

"I think the sport of cycling has done more than enough to prove it is doing the right thing," Evans said, according to Fox News.

"Now it is time for other sports to look at cycling and replicate what cycling does, so the fight against drugs in sport can maybe be beaten one day across all sports."

The Australian did not give an opinion on Contador's guilt or innocence.  "I don't know all that goes on behind there and what all the real facts are and so on.

"I go along and do my job and that's up to the authorities to decide.”

Like so many others, Evans got lost in the time-consuming twists, turns and delays in the case. "It was a case that dragged on for so long I had no idea what was going on and what was going to happen. I just read the newspapers like the rest of us."

 
However, on the other hand, Eddy Merckx had a much better response, at least in my opinion:

Merckx deplores "excessive" punishment in Contador ban

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/merckx-deplores-excessive-punishment-in-contador-ban) 

On Monday, the news of Alberto Contador's two-year ban spread quickly across the globe and triggered a variety of reactions. At the Tour of Qatar in the Middle East, race organiser and all-time champion Eddy Merckx was baffled at the CAS decision, blaming not Contador but sporting authorities for the bad news.

"It's very sad for him and for cycling in general. It's as if somebody wanted to kill cycling," Merckx told Eurosport. "I'm very surprised and disgusted. It's bad for everyone, for the reputation of cycling, for the sponsors."

He continued by insinuating that cycling's efforts to combat doping were excessive and that other sports did not apply the rules in the same way. "I think it's going too far - when a test result is like this one, 0.0000... it's only in cycling that this sort of thing happens.

"I'm the first to say that we need controls, but I think that we are going too far in cycling."

And finally, I guess its a little late for one to hope that, that Jan Ullrich's verdict will be just as swift:

Ullrich verdict set to be handed down by CAS on Thursday

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ullrich-verdict-set-to-be-handed-down-by-cas-on-thursday)

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has announced that it will hand down a decision on the case concerning the International Cycling Union (UCI), and Jan Ullrich on Thursday.

The UCI appealed the Swiss Olympic Committee's decision to close the file on evidence linking Ullrich to the Operacion Puerto doping case. Ullrich retired after being implicated in the 2006 investigation, and was later linked to blood evidence by DNA testing.

A finding was due to be announced mid last month however, the case was again delayed having been filed at the end of March 2010.

Ullrich, 1997 Tour de France winner and five-time runner-up, retired in February 2007 having been implicated in Operacion Puerto the year prior. In July 2009, Swiss Olympic, which handles doping cases in the country, announced that it was officially opening an investigation. But again, it came to a standstill. Until February 10, 2010, when they announced that since Ullrich had quit his membership in the national federation in 2006, they had no jurisdiction over him, and the investigation was closed. However, both the International Cycling Union and the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed that decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and it’s this case which is now due to be resolved.

Thursday's announcement will be the latest in the big week of legal cases with United States Attorney's Office in Los Angeles close down a two-year investigation into allegations of fraud and doping that involved the US Postal Service Team and Lance Armstrong last Friday and then the CAS handing Alberto Contador a two-year sanction for his positive test for clenbuterol at the 2010 Tour de France.