Astana back decision to suspend Contador

Alberto Contador's former team is backing the UCI's decision to provisionally suspend the three-time Tour de France champion after a positive drug test.

The Spaniard won his third Tour title this summer riding with the Astana team. He has since joined the Saxo Bank-SunGard team.

Astana said in a statement on Friday that team officials are "now expecting further explanations from Alberto Contador and support the UCI who suspended him provisionally."

A World Anti-Doping Agency lab in Germany found a "very small concentration" of the banned substance clenbuterol in Contador's urine sample taken on July 21 at the Tour.

Contador claimed on Thursday that contaminated meat caused the positive result.