Following his provisional suspension imposed by the UCI, frustrated Roman Kreuziger decided to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in order to get his ban temporarily lifted and participate in the Vuelta a Espana. The Tinkoff-Saxo rider disagrees with the UCI decision, claiming that anomalies in his biological passport were due to an extreme dehydration.

Despite being formally under investigation what ruled him out of the Tour de France, Kreuziger wasn’t suspended by the UCI, nor by the Russian team, and so was expected to line-up at the start of the Tour de Pologne as a Tinkoff-Saxo leader. The UCI decided to ban the 29-year old Czech a day before the Polish stage race kicked off due to anomalies found in his biological passport when he rode for Astana, but the rider disagrees with their verdict and claims that his suspension was imposed against the law.

“I am deeply frustrated by this current situation, which makes it impossible for me to do my job and ride my bike. I’m not a cheat, and I have not committed any doping offence," Kreuziger said in a statement on his personal website.

"Experts confirm that there is no evidence of any alleged anti-doping rule violation in my case. This has been going on since June 2013, and still there is no formal case opened against me. Despite this I’m now provisionally suspended. I sincerely hope that this situation can be resolved quickly and not turned into a political matter."

“I am grateful to my team, Tinkoff-Saxo, for their support, and it helps me to know they trust me and have faith in me based on our working relationship and the expert opinions on my case,” he said.

According to Cyclingnews, however, the UCI had legal basis to provisionally suspend Kreuziger even though he didn’t provide a positive result of an anti-doping test, as their rule 242 goes as follows:

"…the Anti-Doping Commission or one of its members may ban the Rider from participating in Events for such time that the violation, in the opinion of the Anti-Doping Commission or such member, is likely to affect the Rider’s results."