The Spanish cycling team of Kazakh star Alexandre Vinokourov, Astaná-Würth, will be on the start line at the Tour de France after a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling on Thursday rejected an effort to ban the team from the race.

The court decided to reject a request from the Tour's organizers to exclude Astaná-Würth from the race, which begins on July 1, after their former team manager Manolo Sáiz was linked with the Spanish blood-doping investigation currently engulfing the sport.

CAS Judge Guido de Croock applauded the organizers’ commitment to ethics, but said there was no real foundation for the team’s exclusion.

"The Tour organizers have taken seriously their responsibilities in trying to preserve the credibility of their event, as well as cycling in general," de Croock said. "However, no official information has been revealed by the Spanish authorities.

"The tribunal has chosen to recognize that there is an absence of concrete evidence to establish that the participation of the Astana-Würth team and their cyclists poses a serious threat to the image of cycling or the event."

Tour organizers asked Astaná-Würth to stay away from the Tour on Monday but the team declined the request and headed for Strasbourg, for the start on Saturday.

They were originally due to be excluded from the official presentation of riders and teams at a public reception on Thursday evening.

But Astaná-Würth will now join other teams on a boat trip along the Ill River from the European Parliament to a presentation ceremony in front of Rohan castle in the city center.