Alberto Contador has submitted his final defence in an attempt to overturn a proposed one-year ban for failing a doping test during the 2010 Tour de France.  

Contador, who went on to win last year’s Tour, tested positive after traces of clenbuterol were found in a sample submitted on July 21, the race’s second rest day.

The Spaniard, who could be stripped of his third Tour title, has submitted a further 35 pages to the Spanish cycling federation to demonstrate the clenbuterol, a weight-loss and muscle-building drug, was ingested via contaminated meat and that he displayed “no significant fault or negligence”.

Traces of the drug were also found in three subsequent tests across the following four days, but the disciplinary committee dismissed those tests as clenbuterol takes several days to disappear from the system.

“With the documents presented and the two new points we’ve introduced there’s hope this [decision] changes,” Contador told Spanish national radio.

“The rule says the athlete must show responsibility and negligence for a sanction to be applied.”

The 28-year-old has pointed to the case of French tennis player Richard Gasquet, who escaped a ban after proving he unintentionally ingested cocaine after kissing a woman at a nightclub.

Contador, who made the switch from Astana to SaxoBank Sunguard at the start of the 2011 season, will learn his fate at a final hearing expected later this week, but that decision can still be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport by Contador, the UCI or WADA.