Kreuziger will not seek damages from UCI or WADA in dropped Passport case

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Tinkoff-Saxo's Roman Kreuziger has decided not to seek compensation or reimbursement from the UCI or World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after the sport’s governing body dropped their lengthy Biological Passport-related anti-doping case against the Czech rider on Friday citing "the availability of newly-obtained information".

Jan Stovicek, Kreuziger’s attorney, told Velonews on Monday that the rider would not be seeking damages. "Roman took the position to drop all of this behind him. It’s history for him," Stovicek said. "He’s happy it’s closed, he wants to look forward, to focus on racing, to the Tour de France this year. He doesn’t wish to bring up any claims, or any damages."

Tinkoff-Saxo withheld Kreuziger from the Tour de France last year because of fluctuations in his Biological Passport between the periods of March to August in 2011 and April through the end of the Giro d’Italia in 2012, during that time he raced with Astana.

He was provisionally suspended by the UCI in August last year and the UCI president Brian Cookson had told Cyclingnews that there were "very serious anomalies" in his Biological Passport. One month later, however, the Czech Olympic Committee cleared Kreuziger and he was permitted to return to racing.

The UCI and WADA intended to appeal the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and a hearing was set for June 10.

In a surprising turn of events, the UCI released a statement on Friday, less than a week before the scheduled hearing, which stated: "The UCI and WADA have come to the conclusion that, in accordance with the applicable UCI anti-doping rules and WADA Athlete Biological Passport operating guidelines, there is at this stage no basis to proceed further. They have therefore decided to withdraw their appeals. The ABP is managed by the independent Athlete Passport Management Unit (APMU) in Lausanne and ABP cases are prosecuted based on the opinion of an independent Expert Panel.

"Consistent with the approach taken during this entire case and in light of the confidential nature of the information concerned, the UCI and WADA are not in a position to comment further."

It is still unknown whether or not Tinkoff-Saxo will try and seek damages from the UCI and WADA, however, Kreuziger has said, "I am happy that this case is over and I feel great relief. It was a very difficult period. I would like to thank all the people who supported me."