Continuing a few days where doping themes rather than race results have occupied many cycling headlines, the final verdict in the UCI’s appeal against Jan Ullrich will be announced in less than 48 hours time.
“The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) intends to publish its decision in the arbitration procedure involving the International Cycling Union (UCI), Jan Ullrich and Swiss Olympic on Thursday 9 February 2012,” CAS stated today on its website.
The news comes one day after Alberto Contador was handed a backdated two year ban and stripped of his 2010 Tour de France victory by a CAS arbitration panel.
It also follows four days after US Attorney General Andre Birotte Jr said that he was ending the federal investigation into Lance Armstrong but the US Anti Doping Agency said that it would continue its own enquiry.
Ullrich won the Tour de France in 1997 and finished second five times, but was implicated in the Operacion Puerto affair in 2006. He retired from the sport and was not sanctioned. The latter decision was appealed by both the UCI and Swiss Anti-Doping.
The latter’s move was thrown out by CAS on November 30th, with the panel stating that it didn’t have jurisdiction in the case for two reasons.
The first was the ‘absence of a valid arbitration agreement between Swiss Anti-Doping and Jan Ullrich to refer their dispute to the CAS’, while the second related to the fact that Ullrich was no longer a member of Swiss Cycling after October 19th 2006.
It meant that he was not bound by amendments to the Statutes of Swiss Olympic on 1 July 2 2008, which replaced the former Anti-doping panel of Swiss Olympic with the Swiss Anti-Doping.
When it dismissed that appeal, CAS acknowledged the UCI’s jurisdiction in the matter and said that it would issue its final decision in approximately six weeks.
Like the Contador ruling, that was delayed but is now set to be announced on Thursday.