In brief: Drug in beef could explain positive test, experts say

Cycling: Tour de France champion Alberto Contador’s claim that the steak he ate is to blame for his positive doping test is plausible, experts say, since the drug he’s accused of taking is sometimes illegally given to beef cattle.

The drug clenbuterol is often used to speed up growth and increase muscle mass in animals, including chickens, cattle and pigs. And it’s typically been used by people for bodybuilding.

Contador has been provisionally suspended after the International Cycling Union said a “small concentration” of clenbuterol was found in his urine sample on July 21 during the Tour de France, which the Spanish rider won for a third time.

Contador blamed the finding on “food contamination,” saying he ate beef brought from Spain to France on a rest day.

Doctors said it would have been nearly impossible for Contador to have received any performance boost from eating clenbuterol-spiked meat.

“The amounts (of clenbuterol he consumed) would be incredibly small unless you were eating vast quantities of meat,” said Dr. Andrew Franklyn-Miller, a sports medicine expert at the Centre for Human Performance in London and a team doctor for Britain’s rowing team.

“It’s very unlikely that the night before a stage in the mountains, anyone would be eating three or four steaks,” said Franklyn-Miller, who said cyclists typically eat carbohydrates before a race because they are easier to digest.

Michael Audran, a doping expert who works closely with the World Anti-Doping Agency, said the amount of clenbuterol found in Contador’s samples was so small it is unlikely the cyclist was abusing the drug. He said the contamination theory is the only possible explanation for the positive result.

• Spanish Vuelta runner-up Mosquera tests positive: Cycling’s governing body says Spanish Vuelta runner-up Ezequiel Mosquera and another rider tested positive for a banned substance during this year’s race.

The UCI says Mosquera and Xacobeo-Galicia teammate David Garcia showed traces of hydroxyethyl starch – which increases blood volume – in urine samples collected on Sept. 16.

Mosquera won the penultimate stage of the race two days later and finished 41 seconds behind winner Vincenzo Nibali in the overall standings.

Ochocinco cereal box uses sex-line number

Football: Charity-minded callers are getting intercepted by a phone-sex line because of a typo on Chad Ochocinco’s Cereal boxes.

The phone number is supposed to connect callers to Feed the Children, which benefits from sales of the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver’s cereal. But the box has the wrong toll-free prefix, meaning callers get a seductive-sounding woman who makes risque suggestions and then asks for a credit card number.

Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. said it was pulling all Ochocinco cereal boxes from its grocery shelves because of the error. Some local stores had them on special display after the launch about a month ago.

• Attorneys say money to ex-UNC coach were loans: Attorneys for former North Carolina assistant coach John Blake say there was nothing seedy about loans their client received from longtime friend and sports agent Gary Wichard, and there was never an arrangement to direct players to Wichard once they left for the NFL.

Florida-based attorney William H. Beaver II said Wichard was trying to help Blake, who encountered financial trouble after being fired as the head coach at Oklahoma a dozen years ago.

Beaver wouldn’t specify how much money and said no funds were provided in the past three years or so, roughly around the same time that Blake was preparing for his first season with Butch Davis and the Tar Heels.

• Appalachian State to study possible move to FBS: Appalachian State, known for its stunning upset of Michigan in 2007 and its three straight national titles last decade, announced it will evaluate shifting from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Bowl Subdivision. The feasibility study could take up to a year.

Appalachian State joins fellow Southern Conference member Georgia Southern and Montana in beginning discussions about moving to the FBS.

Atwal, Hass among first-round leaders

Golf: Arjun Atwal, Bill Lunde, Ken Duke, Brett Quigley and Bill Haas all took advantage of great early conditions to share the lead at 6-under-par 66 after the first round of the Viking Classic at Madison, Miss.

Brendon de Jonge, who played later in the day, was able to join them in a tie for first. De Jonge had six birdies and an eagle on the par-5 seventh to offset two bogeys and make it a 6-way tie.

Nathan Green, Jeff Quinney, Dean Wilson and Charlie Wi were one stroke back at 67, and David Duval and Sean O’Hair were in a group of seven at 68.