David Etxebarria critical of Contador's reaction to one-year ban

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Former Euskaltel, ONCE and Liberty Seguros rider David Etxebarria has slammed his ex-team-mate Alberto Contador, effectively accusing the three-time Tour de France winner of hypocrisy. A series of five posts on his Twitter page concluded with two-time Tour stage-winner Etxebarria telling Contador “don’t shout out when previously you stayed silent”.

This came after Etxebarria suggested that Contador, who is expected to appeal against his one-year ban after testing positive for clenbuterol, had not made any fuss when former team-mates had been caught up in doping affairs.

The two riders were teammates at the Liberty Seguros team in 2005 and into 2006, when Astana took over the running of the team in the wake of the Operation Puerto blood doping investigation. Etxebarria was among the riders whose careers were ended by the Puerto affair.

Etxebarria’s Contador-related posts start with a comment that “on Friday after listening to Contador I will give my opinion on the case. It will surprise quite a few…”

After adding the following day that he needs time to think about the right words to use, Extebarria eventually tweets: “AC you shout about justice and when it is handed out you start shouting again that you don’t believe in it”.

He then adds: “When there were ex-team-mates who were asking for justice and weren’t given it you were silent.” A further tweet states: “You shout about the gutter press… When the majority has been easier on you that it has with anyone else in a similar case.”

Now well into his flow, Etxebarria’s fourth tweet says: “You shout about not believing in this anti-doping system when before it was because of it that you won the “Rasmussen” Tour and were silent.”

Extebarria then offers a bit of an olive branch before his final complaint, saying: “You’re the classiest guy that I have ever seen racing and I hope that you will be back on the bike tomorrow… But don’t SHOUT when before you were SILENT.”