Hondo at the Tinkoff team presentation - he hasn't raced yet this year (Image credit: Gregor Brown)
The hearing of Danilo Hondo's court case has been delayed for one day. "At the request of the UCI's attorney, the hearings in my case before the Swiss 'Kantonsgericht' (cantonal court) has been delayed for a day, to April 18," he wrote on his website, danilo-hondo.de.
"If we get a positive decision from the judge as to the question of whether I can start, I could ride with my team Tinkoff as soon as Thursday in the Giro d'Abruzzo in Italy," he hoped.
A small amount of the prohibited drug Carphedon was found in Hondo's system during the Vuelta a Murcia in March 2005, while he was riding for Gerolsteiner. In June that year, the Swiss Cycling Federation issued a two year ban, but with one year to be suspended followed by a five year probation period. The Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) ruled in January 2006 that Hondo deserved a two year ban, thereby extending his ban by one year per the advice of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
A Swiss court subsequently overturned that ban and allowed Hondo to return to racing, but the Swiss Supreme Court reinstated his suspension in January 2007. Earlier this month, the CAS issued a clarification that the ban must be 'effectively' served, and the UCI subsequently ordered the suspension to run through January 2008.
