Luca Paolini is hoping he doesn’t receive a strict sentence on Friday when the UCI’s Anti-Doping Tribunal meets in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss his case for a positive test for cocaine.

He faces a two year ban for testing positive at the Tour de France, but he claims he took it at a training camp in June and as he was not in competition, he may not face a ban for the recreational drug if he can prove this.

His cocaine bust began when he realised he was addicted to sleeping pills and he was using cocaine to keep himself awake and get himself motivated. He has since undergone treatment for this addiction to the pills.

While he has yet to say how he got the cocaine, he has hired expert doping lawyers Marco and Federico Cecconi to defend him. The 39 year old Italian will rejoin his Katusha team if he is acquitted of ant wrongdoing.