Roman Kreuziger could be take the departure of the Tour of Oman, despite a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing hanging over his head. Indeed, Tinkoff Saxo has confirmed that the Czech rider will ride even if he has been embroiled in a long-running case against the UCI.

"Basically we don't know about the date for the hearing and that’s the real truth when it comes to because we’re left with no information," the Tinkoff Saxo general manager Stefano Feltrin told Cyclingnews. "He's eligible to race and he's demanded to race because he wants to return and he wants to put pressure on the UCI. For us he can race and we have to contractually race him but we want him to race as well. It's unfortunate that the UCI are taking so long to file an appeal. They're using all their remedies but it's not in the best interest of the sport. At this point I have no idea when it could take place. The UCI need to file all their documents and they’re still doing this. Then CAS will set a date for the hearing."

Fullerton added that Kreuziger will come back in February: "If possible he might start in Oman but that’s just a tentative decision. We hoped to have a date for the hearing before Christmas but now anything would be a wild guess but he’s eligible to race now. He’ll do a block of training now and then we’ll go from there."