The head of cycling's world governing body has refused to comment on the suspension of three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador.

The Spaniard was provisionally banned on Thursday after testing positive for the banned drug clenbuterol.

Contador, 27, claims he is the victim of contaminated food from Spain.

Cycling chief Pat McQuaid said he was "completely limited" in what he could say about Contador's suspension and was therefore "saying nothing".

A World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited lab in Cologne, Germany, found a "very small concentration" of clenbuterol in Contador's urine sample provided during the Tour on 21 July.

Both Contador's A and B samples tested positive but a statement from the International Cycling Union (UCI) said the case required further scientific investigation before any conclusion could be drawn.

The amount of the muscle-building and fat-burning drug was 40 times less than the 50 picogram benchmark (or two nanograms per millilitre) measurement that anti-doping laboratories accredited by Wada must be able to detect in urine samples.

If people are cheating and getting caught, that's a good thing Road race world champion Cadel Evans

McQuaid said he had every confidence in the investigative process.

"It's an independent process," he said after attending the UCI Congress meeting in a Melbourne hotel. "The UCI are working closely with WADA and we wait until we get to the process."

Within hours of Contador's case becoming public, the UCI announced that two other Spanish riders failed drug tests during the Spanish Vuelta in September - runner-up Ezequiel Mosquera and David Garcia. The UCI said both tested positive for hydroxyethyl starch, which increases blood volume.

When asked whether a rash of positive tests was a reflection of the effectiveness of the UCI anti-doping regime, McQuaid said "the system works."

Meanwhile, road race world champion Cadel Evans said he wanted to find out more about Contador's case before commenting on the Spaniard's situation.

"I just read some little things in the paper, I don't really know what the situation is," said Evans. "If people are cheating and getting caught, that's a good thing. But if people want to exaggerate the stories and claim cycling is a filthy sport, that's not such a good thing.

"I don't know exactly what the situation is there, they're still waiting on further analysis."

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