UCI spokesman Enrico Carpani has however confirmed to VeloNation that it is possible that the team’s position could be examined.
“I can confirm in case of suspension of Alberto Contador, the Licences Commission could review the position of the team, according to UCI rules,” he said.
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/7...-Banks-position-if-Contador-is-suspended.aspx
As usual, that goes completely against what Pat McQuaid said just two weeks ago:
"The ProTeam points will stay the same," UCI President Pat McQuaid told Cyclingnews. "The points were calculated in October and even if Contador was sanctioned and lost his Tour de France victory, the points would stay the same. I know some teams might be angry about this but I don't think we left ourselves open to a legal challenge."
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mcquaid-says-saxo-bank-will-not-lose-contadors-ranking-points
So, the UCI was aware of the Contador positive in August, and never made any sort of conditions on the team. They took their own darned time coming up with 600 pages of scientific documents for the delay.
Now the fate of a Danish team, it's riders and sponsors lies in the hands of a Spanish cycling federation. Suppose a country called Farmville had a national team that had just barely made tthe Pro Team cut. An athlete from Farmville is accused of doping, and the Federation has to make a decision, knowing that if they find the rider innocent, the team will have no problem for months as they await a CAS appeal, and they can sign someone with points to keep their license the following year. Would any federation be willing to let an entire team of athletes, plus sponsors, from their country suffer based on a decision they made about one rider, when they could let someone else punish him later in the year?
There are all kinds of scenarios you can play around with, like the Italian federation gladly taking a team with one Italian star out of contention for the Giro.
What if it wasn't February? Would the UCI think the same way in June, or in August? If they don't want to honor their own agreement, what if, God for bid, a team's big star was in a serious accident in March? Would they remove their Pro Team status because he couldn't race in the grand tours?
There are a lot of hoops that a team has too jump through by the end of each year to be set up for the next. Last year a lot of teams had no clue what the requirements were. Now the UCI is stepping forward, contradicting their own statements, saying we can do whatever we want whenever we want and you guys are going to take it.
Right now, there's a talented cyclist who won his fifth grand tour at the age of 27. Thanks to 50 picograms of a substance that could not have helped him win that race, the Spanish Federation is being pushed towards a decision to strip him of a Tour de France title, give up two years of his career and salary, give over three million Euros to the UCI, and possibly kick 25 of his teammates out of the top level, forcing them to beg for races, and pushing sponsors out of the sport?
Nice system.