Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) president Pat McQuaid has denied that the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) has sent his organisation documentation from the Contador case in order to produce a joint verdict.
"As of Friday, when I left the UCI offices, we had received nothing from the Spanish Federation about Contador," McQuaid told Cycling Weekly on Sunday.
"We have had no contact with them over this case."
McQuaid's comments cast serious doubt over a report in El País newspaper in Spain on Sunday that the Spanish Federation had sent documentation to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the UCI and the Spanish Anti-Doping Agency in a bid to obtain a joint verdict on Contador's case.
The report, citing anonymous sources inside the RFEC, even went so far as to claim that the UCI had responded positively to the initiative and would be delivering a verdict by January 23. The idea, according to El País, was to speed up the process, cut out any appeals by the UCI and/or WADA to CAS, and simultaneously 'share the blame' for any verdict.
However, McQuaid's comments would appear to put everything back to its default position - in other words, with an RFEC verdict on the Contador case expected in early February, followed by almost certain appeals to CAS by either Contador or the UCI and WADA should the suspension not be to their satisfaction.
When contacted by Cycling Weekly on Sunday, Spanish Cycling Federation president Juan Carlos Castaño refused to comment on the report, saying that any work by his Federation's Disciplinary Commission, which was handling the case, was confidential.
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Spanish cycling federation invites WADA and UCI to make joint decision on Contador
