Roman Kreuziger to miss Vuelta after CAS rejects appeal

Tinkoff-Saxo rider Roman Kreuziger will miss the Vuelta after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected his appeal against the provisional suspension imposed on him earlier this month by the UCI as a result of the ongoing investigation into suspicious values in the Czech rider’s biological passport data.

In a press release issued this afternoon, the CAS said that its arbitration panel had heard the parties at a hearing in Lausanne this morning, with Kreuziger hoping to win the appeal so he could compete in the Vuelta and possibly the UCI Road World Championships next month.

The CAS said the panel had dismissed Kreuziger’s appeal and he “remains provisionally suspended pending a decision on his alleged anti-doping rule violation.” It added that it would publish its full award with the grounds for its decision in the coming weeks.

Kreuziger was withdrawn from Tinkoff-Saxo’s Tour de France squad at the end of June when it emerged that he faced questions over his biological passport data.

He was included in the team’s squad for the Tour de Pologne earlier this month, but on the eve of that race the UCI provisionally suspended him, prompting both the rider and his team to claim that he was being treated unfairly and that the UCI was acting outside the scope of its own rules.

Given today’s decision, which followed an expedited process given the timeframe involved, it appears the CAS arbitration panel has rejected those arguments.