Team Saxo Bank counting on the UCI results
The whole squad of the World Tour side, Team Saxo Bank is under deep pressure as the team’s General Manager Bjarne Riis appeared before the UCI licensing commission to defend its World Tour license.
The Danish team was left shattered after their star rider, Alberto Contador, was given a two-year ban by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The Spaniard was accused of cheating during the Tour de France 2010.
He repeatedly denied the allegations and briefed that the UCI banned substance clenbuterol entered his system through the meat he ate during the race.
Spanish Cycling Federation banned the cyclist initially but later on accepted his appeal and Alberto was allowed to ride at the professional level.
However, the two cycling bodies UCI and WADA appealed against the Spanish Cycling Federation’s decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Contador was finally banned on February 2012 and CAS also disqualified him from all the victories since the French Grand Tour 2012.
The ban prohibits him from riding until August 2012, which means that the Spanish cycling icon will miss all the major cycling events of the year, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’ Italia and the 2012 Olympic Games.
Almost 68 percent of total UCI points earned by Team Saxo Bank came through Contador and his exit means that the team’s World Tour license is under question.
The whole team is under substantial pressure, as UCI is reconsidering whether the team will continue at the top level of the sport or not.
Sporten.dk quoted Nicki Sorensen as saying, “I would be lying if I said that the meeting of the UCI licence commission is not something we talk about”.
“I had probably expected that the signals we got from similar cases with findings of clenbuterol by athletes would lead to an acquittal. For a team like ours, it is of course of tremendous importance to be without a rider like him,” he concluded.
Losing the World Tour status means that the team will have to depend upon the wild card entries for all the races it currently qualifies automatically.
The whole team is now eyeing the final decision by UCI, which will decide the fate of Team Saxo Bank for the 2012 season.
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