Tour de France champion Alberto Contador's positive drugs test has heaped more shame on Spain as a country celebrating a sporting golden age.
The recent achievements of tennis world number one Rafa Nadal and Spain's World Cup-winning soccer team among others, have helped lift the nation to the pinnacle of world sport.
Contador was one of four Spanish cyclists to be suspended in three days, prompting International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid to suggest the government should recognise and tackle the issue.
On Sunday, Spain’s biggest-selling sports daily Marca said Quaid’s comments were “a blow to the heart for a country that owes a large part of its recent joy to the success of its athletes.” However, the 20 positive doping cases in Spanish cycling over the past year and a half proved that there was a lot more to do to “banish this curse,” Marca wrote.