Alberto Contador has been stripped of his 2010 Tour de France victory and banned from cycling for two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, according to the Spanish Cycling Federation.

26543 - Contador banned for two years

The Spaniard, one of only five riders to have won the three Grand Tours - the Tour de France, the Giro and the Spanish Vuelta, has been suspended after testing positive for clenbuterol while winning the Tour de France for a third time in 2010.

Andy Schleck, who came second at the 2010 Tour, is set to be instated as the champion, while Contador stands to lose all of his results in the period since - including the Giro d'Italia last season.

An official CAS statement read: "The Court of Arbitration for Sport [CAS] has rendered its decision in the arbitration between the World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] & the Union Cycliste Internationale [UCI] and the Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador & the Spanish Cycling Federation [RFEC]: the CAS has partially upheld the appeals filed by WADA and the UCI and has found Alberto Contador guilty of a doping offence.

"As a consequence, Alberto Contador is sanctioned with a two-year period of ineligibility starting retroactively on 25 January 2011, minus the period of the provisional suspension served in 2010-2011 [5 months and 19 days]. The suspension should therefore come to an end on 5 August 2012."

At the time of being caught for doping, Contador claimed the positive test was as a consequence of eating contaminated meat. The 29-year-old said steak bought from a Basque producer was to blame for his high levels of the banned substance.

Cycling governing body UCI initially suspended him pending an investigation by Spain's cycling body, only for Contador to be cleared last February by the Spanish Cycling Federation's tribunal, which threw out a recommendation to give a one-year ban.

The UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed the verdict, prompting a fresh hearing that was finally heard in November after twice being postponed.