On the day when CAS – the Court of Arbitration for Sport – is set to hear their case in Lausanne, Team Katusha received some good news. Organisers of the Amstel Gold Race have announced that the ProContinental team is one of the first beneficiaries of a wildcard for the race taking place April 14.

For Katusha this invitation comes as a pleasant surprise after they were denied a UCI WorldTour licence in December last year – the subject of the hearing later today of their case against the sport's governing body in Lausanne. Katusha are presently registered as a ProContinental team, and have already missed out on wildcard invitations to the Giro d'Italia and Paris-Nice.

One interesting question is whether or not the Katusha team will be led by Joaquím Rodríguez, who was runner up to Philippe Gilbert in 2011. Previously the 33-year-old climbing specialist announced that he would leave Katusha to be able to participate in the Tour de France, but that decision may be revoked depending on the outcome of today’s hearing.