ALBERTO CONTADOR HAS been handed a one-year ban for testing positive for clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour de France.

He has the right to appeal this decision and will be allowed 10 working days to do so. Contador tested positive after a doping control on July 21 and was informed of his positive test on August 24.

The standard ban handed down by cycling’s governing body, the UCI, for a positive test is two years. Despite the reduced sentence of only one year, Contador will likely appeal the decision.

Should Contador’s appeal ultimately prove unsuccessful he will be stripped of all race results achieved after he tested positive, this would include the Tour de France. Consequently, Andy Schleck would be declared the winner of the 2010 Tour de France.

This is not the first time a Tour de France winner has been stripped of his Yellow Jersey after the race has been run.

It happened as recently as 2006 when the American Floyd Landis failed a doping test which revealed he had an abnormal testosterone to epitestosterone ratio. The American famously denied that he had ever doped, until recently, when he confessed to doping to win the 2006 Tour de France and previously in his years as Lance Armstrong’s team mate at the US Postal team.

This confession has led to a federal investigation being conducted into Landis’ claims that seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong also doped to win his Tours de France.

The only other previous time that a Tour winner has been stripped of his title was in the second ever edition of the race in 1904. The defending champion Maurice Garin was disqualified along with the second, third and fourth place finishers for taking an illegal train ride during one of the stages.

If Contador’s ban remains one year only, he will likely be eligible to make a comeback at the 2011 Vuelta a Espana.