Saxo Bank SunGard accepts Strade Bianche exclusion

Saxo Bank-SunGard won the first two editions of the Montepaschi Strade Bianchi but it won't have a chance to win in 2011. The Danish team was not amongst those receiving an invitation to the fifth running of the race over the gravel roads in Tuscany.

“We accept the decision,” team spokesman Anders Damgaard told sporten.tv2.dk. “They had to select seven of the 18 ProTeams and unfortunately there was no room for us. We must simply accept it.

Alexandre Kolobnev won the first running of the race in 2007, with Fabian Cancellara taking the team's second consecutive win in 2008.

The team has lost most of its big names of the previous years, however, and it is not yet known whether new signing Alberto Contador will ride this year or be suspended. But Damgaard didn't think that the team changes had anything to do wit the lack of an invitation.

“No, I don't see that,” he said. “The organisers had to pick seven teams, and unfortunately we were not among the seven,”

He added that Team Sky, “also not a bad team”, was also not selected.