Saxo Bank promised to
stay on as title sponsors of Bjarne Riis’s cycling team even if
three-times Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is banned after
failing a dope test. Saxo Bank, who had been due to leave Riis’s outfit
at the end of the season, decided to extend their sponsorship after
Contador announced he was joining the team next season from Astana.
Danilo Di Luca has had his two-year doping ban reduced to 15 months
by an anti-doping tribunal at the Italian Olympic Committee. Di Luca was
banned after testing positive for EPO-Cera after finishing second in the
2009 Giro d’Italia. However, his collaboration with investigators
probing doping in cycling has led to a reduction in his sentence that
was initially set to run until July 2011. The 34-year-old, who won
Li?ge–Bastogne–Li?ge and the Giro in 2007, is cleared to race
immediately and has been linked with a move to Geox who will take over
sponsorship of ProTour team Footon-Servetto in 2011.
