At the end of the Vuelta we will be able to reflect on the entirety of Contador's career. The man did the crime and did the time, with perhaps the most incriminating evidence being the clear split in his career performance and energy outputs, pre and post ban. Pre ban we has a ferocious time trialist that could compete for time trial victories. He would also routinely top 6 watts per kilo output on long ascents in the middle of arduous Grand Tours. Post ban his performance levels, barring an occasional stage in the Giro, never reached anything like the same level, and certainly nothing like the same consistency. He has become routinely a complete non-factor in time trials.
His failure to simply own up to doping is as disappointing as it was predictable. An admission that he could never really make once the Spanish Prime Minister of the time had made an embarrassing public announcement of support. I have little doubt that "anti doping heroes" like Dave Millar might have thought twice about owning up if their positive result had also not been for a PED, but instead for a banned substance that is a byproduct of doping. So I do not judge Alberto too harshly for choosing to live the lie.
He has fought hard since his return from the ban, even in hopeless situations. He has animated the race and gambled, often with complete futility in the era of team radios and massive team salary inequality. He has entertained striving for an impossible victory when others have been cautious and ridden defensively to hold on to a cherished top 10 finish.
He has chosen not to follow the absurd late career peaks of Valverde, Vinokourov and Horner, though this will surely have been an option for him. He has chosen instead to recognise that it is entirely natural for the body and endurance to decline after the age of 32 or 33, and that, except in the rarest of physiological circumstances, the only way to maintain or improve your level beyond that age is to dope.
On reflection, I think there is a real chance Contador was once bitten, twice shy when it came to doping and chose not to dope on his return from the ban. If so, it would be a wonderful endorsement of science behind catching him, the measures in place to catch and deter dopers in the 2008 period and also of Contador's personal character. Personal dignity perhaps being more important to him than winning at all costs.
I wish him well in his attempts to win a stage at his last Vuelta and to retire a with a degree of honour and a last little success. An honour that many of his doping peers will not have earnt.
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