With the Alberto Contador CAS hearing now concluded and awaiting a verdict, the Saxo Bank squad will tomorrow take another step forwards towards the 2012 season. Bjarne Riis’ squad will hold a team presentation in Hellerup in Denmark, then board a plane for its pre-season get-together.
In what is an unusual location for a training camp, the Saxo Bank team is heading to Israel until December 11th, spending two weeks in the Middle East state. “As usual the primary aim of this camp is for everyone to get to know each other and to build a strong team spirit that is one of Riis Cycling's core values,” the team said in a statement.
“The team building camp will this time be centred around two themes, charity work that benefits children and globalizing and promoting cycling.”
It stated that the work would be done in cooperation with Israeli philanthropist Raya Strauss and the Shimon Peres Center for Peace. The team will also spend time in Jerusalem, where the team will be hosted by the city mayor, Nir Barkat.
Riis spoke about the setting and aims of the camp. “I think we have put together a very different and very interesting program in cooperation with Raya Strauss and The Shimon Peres Center for Peace in Israel.
“We believe this is a great way of building our team and giving everyone onboard a lifetime experience. At the same time we hope to showcase that cycling offers a lot of qualities, when it comes to helping others.”
The squad was given a UCI ProTeam licence last week but, significantly, for one year only. It is known that Saxo Bank has indicated it wants to continue its association with the team on a year by year basis, and this is likely to be a factor.
The team must however await the result of the Contador hearing to know for sure if it will have the top-ranked licence next season. More than half of its points come from the Spaniard, and the UCI has said that it might re-evaluate the team’s ranking if he is ultimately sanctioned and his results of this season taken away.
Contador’s hearing was held over four days last week, starting Monday and running until Thursday. He maintained his stance that he has not doped and that the Clenbuterol in his system was there due to food contamination.
WADA is understood to have pursued the thesis that a blood transfusion may have reintroduced the substance to his system. It is not certain if the UCI also argued along the same grounds, as its appeal was kept separate to that of WADA.
UCI spokesman Enrico Carpani told VeloNation earlier this year that the governing body would look at Clenbuterol alone rather than scrutinising the plasticizer issue.
Some information from the appeal was reported through the Spanish media, but the CAS panel instructed midway though the four day hearing that all such leaks should immediately stop.
The arbitration panel comprises Israeli chairman Efraim Barak, German law professor Ulrich Haas and the Swiss lawyer Quentin Byrne-Sutton.
CAS has indicated that a final conclusion will be announced in six to eight weeks.