johnguinness's Diaryland Diary
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One more step
I slept maybe 3 hours last night before getting up to watch for the official decision about Contador. He ended up waiting too, after hearing rumors yesterday that he would be free. At 3:15 his brother/manager got the call, they sent the lawyer to go pick up Alberto's freshly unsuspended license, Alberto taped a quick interview for a TV show, then he and his brother hopped in the car to drive to Portugal where he starts a five day race tomorrow as defending champ.
One bonus bit of cool news was that while his being cleared was all about innocence, the UCI made yet another procedural mistake that violated Spanish law. On November 9th, they sent the Spanish cycling federation a letter about the four possible ways the Clenbuterol could have gotten there, but they didn't copy Alberto or his lawyer.
It's just one of the ways they screwed this up from the get-go, from not telling him right away, as required, imposing a gag order on him for five weeks so he couldn't even tell his parents, withholding the positive from the press, even to the point of lying when word leaked and they were asked. There's a ton more, including all kinds of trying to influence the decision via the press at a time where their own rules say that sit quietly and wait until it's their turn again. Hopefully it means they won't try to appeal.
So yeah, I'm very excited, very happy, and very hopeful that the woman from the dentist office who parked halfway across the alley entrance to block me from getting in my car will go away for lunch.
I'm still making progress, as promised. I printed the e-mail I sent to the food stamp people weeks ago, wrapped it around the two letters I didn't open a year ago after missing my interview appointment, and am shooting that into the mail.
12:13 p.m. - Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011
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