MADRID (AP) — Eddy Merckx wonders if someone is trying to “kill cycling.”

The cycling great deplored the decision Monday to strip Alberto Contador of his 2010 Tour de France title and ban him for two years for doping.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected Contador’s claim that his positive test for clenbuterol was caused by eating contaminated meat. The Spaniard, who also won cycling’s premier race in 2007 and 2009, joined Floyd Landis as the only riders to lose a Tour title.

“It’s very bad for cycling. It’s bad for everybody. It’s like someone wants to kill cycling,” Merckx, a five-time Tour de France winner, told The Associated Press at the Tour of Qatar. “I’m very surprised, very surprised. It’s bad for the sponsors. It’s bad for the Tour (de France). It’s bad for cycling.”

Contador said he ate tainted beef eaten on a Tour rest day. The top court in international sports called that “unlikely,” saying the result was more likely caused by the “ingestion of a contaminated food supplement.”

“Cycling always receives a bad name. It’s always cycling that’s attacked and other sports are never attacked. In other sports they don’t go so far,” Merckx said.

“If you go zero-zero-zero-zero-zero (tolerance) you can always find something in everyone.”

Contador has been banned from racing until Aug. 6 with all his results since Jan. 25, 2011, erased, including his Giro d’Italia victory last May. He is ineligible for this year’s Tour, Giro and the London Olympics.

Andy Schleck, who finished 39 seconds behind Contador in the 2010 Tour, is now in line to become that year’s champion. But the Luxembourg rider said that “will not make me happy.”

“I feel sad for Alberto. I always believed in his innocence. This is just a very sad day for cycling,” Schleck said. “The only positive news is that there is a verdict after 566 days of uncertainty. We can finally move on.”