europa

This is slightly off topic, but many countries in the world use a legal system where you are presumed guilty and have to prove your innocence. It's not as bad as it sounds to those of us used the the British system where the reverse applies. For instance, the judge's job is to search out the truth and to aid the defendant in proving his innocence. Many argue that it's a better system than the British system. I don't think it matters as long as the right person winds up in jail.

With Contador though, I think it's more a case of 'everytime we've seen an extreme performance, the bloke's been proven to be on drugs', and Contador's performance has certainly been extreme. It's also interesting to listen to other riders duck and weave around questions about him, so the peleton seems to have it's own ideas too.

Personally though, he's clean until he's caught or confesses ... at which point he becomes a cheat and his only way of rehabilitating his reputation with me is to confess and then become a clean rider. It's an attitude that's a bit black and white but that's a defense mechanism because we outside the peleton don't really know what's going on inside it ... and I loathe cheats.

Richard