Committee president Alejandro Blanco defended his country's sport against its detractors, including a French satirical television show that lampooned Spain's sporting heros in a sketch about doping.

``The successes of Spanish sport are solely due to hard work, dedication and planning,'' Blanco told a news conference.

``We are the biggest defenders of cleanliness in sport and we can hold our head high,'' he said, citing Spain's 2006 anti-doping law.

``We have a large number of tests per year: more than 11,000 in 2011. All this means Spain is in the frontline of those countries fighting against doping,'' he added.

The Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday handed a two-year ban to Contador after he tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol.

Contador says it was due to a contaminated steak eaten during the 2010 Tour de France. He said on Tuesday that his lawyers were looking into a possible appeal.

``We will continue to fight until the end,'' he told a news conference.

The ban prompted widespread indignation in Spain, with many in the public and media branding it unjust.

The sanction is backdated to August 2010. As well as ruling him out of this year's Tour de France and the Olympic Games in London, he will be stripped of several wins, including his 2010 yellow jersey, one of his three victories in the French race.

Blanco hit out yesterday at the ``Guignols de l'Info'', a French TV sketch show.

Spain's tennis federation said yesterday it would sue French broadcaster Canal+ over the comedy sketches which implied Contador, tennis player Rafael Nadal and other Spanish athletes use performance-enhancing drugs.