The Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) will come to its decision in the case of Alex Rasmussen by May, TV2 Sport reports. The Danish rider committed three violations under whereabouts regulations – when he was once late with submitting his details, and missed two tests – within the eighteen-month period up to last April. He was acquitted by his federation on a techicality however, as the International Cycling Union (UCI) took longer than the statutory fourteen days to inform Rasmussen after the third violation.
Just over a month later the UCI confirmed that it had lodged an appeal with the CAS.
Rasmussen was immediately fired by his HTC-Highroad in September, after it transpired that he had failed to inform the team of his two violations in 2010; before he joined the American team. His proposed move to Garmin-Cervélo [now Garmin-Barracuda – ed] looked to be off, because of the team’s strict anti-doping stance, but went through as the Danish federation announced its decision to acquit him on the eve of the team’s official presentation.
“The treatment of the case will formally take about four months,” Matthieu Reeb, Secretary General of the CAS, told tv2sport.dk. “So we expect that it will be decided in late April or early May.”
While the expected schedule is now known however, the exact dates that the CAS will review the case have not been decided.
“I can confirm that we received the UCI's appeal of the case against Alex Rasmussen at the end of last year,” Reeb said. “But we have not yet issued any hearing dates.”
The Rasmussen camp has expressed itself happy with the expected timetable; with many anti-doping cases dragging on for years – including that of 2010 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador – they had feared that it would have taken far longer.
“It sounds like a realistic schedule,” said Rasmussen’s lawyer Henrik Stagetorn, “and we hope that it might be even faster. We will certainly do our bit to get it through even quicker.
“It's faster than I had originally feared,” he explained. “We have the cycling season about to start, and I feared that it be delayed by a decision of the CAS.”
The proposed timetable will see Rasmussen able to start the 2012 season as he did 2011, when he began at the Tour of Oman; he also rode Paris-Nice, and most of the Spring Classics. Should the CAS find in the UCI’s favour though, and he receives a suspension – which could potentially be between three months and two years – his results would almost certainly be annulled.
“We have now received the formal notice of appeal, what it is that party claims, and we've got a deadline to make a defence,” confirmed Stagetorn. We know our course, and so we hope for a quick handling of the case.”