The UCI Licence Commission will consider whether Team Saxo Bank should remain in cycling’s elite WorldTour at a meeting on Monday February 27.
A ruling earlier this month by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) stripped the former Saxo Bank team leader, Alberto Contador, of points scored last year, including those from his now-rescinded victory in the 2011 Giro d’Italia.
Contador was banned for two years for a positive test for clenbuterol on the second rest day of the 2010 Tour De France, given while he was racing for the Kazakh-registered Astana squad. CAS upheld a call for Contador’s suspension from the UCI and the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA).
Now the UCI will decide whether Contador’s suspension should affect the team operated by his subsequent employers, Riis Cycling, owned by 1997 Tour De France winner, Bjarne Riis, and backed by the Danish bank.
RoadCyclingUK understands that while a time frame has not been set for the Licence Commission’s ruling, it could come within the week of the hearing.
Qualification for WorldTour status is based partly on the aggregate of points scored by a team’s riders. Points lost from Contador’s overturned Giro victory, and from his results in other WorldTour events last season, including his fifth place in the Tour De France, have left Saxo Bank below the required threshold.
Riis announced last week that Contador’s contract had been terminated, although both he and Contador refused to rule out the possibility of resuming their working relationship when the Spaniard’s back-dated two-year suspension is concluded in August.
The UCI’s inclusion of rider points among the critera for WorldTour qualification has drawn criticism from teams and riders, among them 2010 world road race champion, Thor Hushovd, for devaluing the importance of team riding and the role played by domestiques in delivering team leaders to victory.
