According to Spanish newspaper El Pais, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)  has ruled in favour of Movistar and Saxo-Tinkoff in their appeal against the UCI rule that doesn't allow points earned by riders who have served a ban for an anti-doping violation, to be taken into consideration until two years after the end of their suspension. The ruling means that the points earned by Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde will count when the teams are ranked to determine their sporting level for the 2014 season.

Last year, the ProTeam status of the Saxo-Tinkoff team hang in the balance as the points earned by Alberto Contador weren't taken into consideration for the evaluation of the sporting level due to a controversial UCI rule that blocked the consideration of points of riders for two years after the end of a doping suspension. The team made it into the top division on that occasion but may not need to fear a similar scenario in the future.

According to El Pais, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned the rule following an appeal from Saxo-Tinkoff which was joined by the Movistar team which found itself in a similar position with Alejandro Valverde having also served a suspension. The Spanish newspaper reports that "on October 11, the CAS panel chaired by Ulrich Haas  announced its decision that the points scored by Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde and other pro riders who have been punished for offences commitment before June 30 2011, will again be taken into consideration in the classification of the teams."

The rule has been controversial for two reasons. Firstly, it has been doubtful whether it was allowed to impose a sanction retroactively for offences that were committed at a time when those rules were still not in place. Secondly, it may be seen as an additional penalty that is not in accordance with the code of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The ruling is a win for Saxo-Tinkoff owner Bjarne Riis who has long been critical of the rule and who initiated the legal battle. However, it will have no major impact on the ProTeam licenses for the 2014 season as only 18 teams have applied for being included in the top division and those have all made it into the top 18 in the classification of teams according to their sporting value - even without the points of Valverde and Contador.

Neither UCI nor Riis issued a comment on today's ruling.