According to Marc Biver, the answer is yes.
Fabian Cancellara has recently indicated that it was the signing of five-time Grand Tour champion, Alberto Contador, that prompted his late departure and massive buyout from Bjarne Riis’s Saxo Bank/SunGard team.
Danish station TV2’s sport magazine, Lige Pa og Sport (LPS) has documents that supposedly prove a much longer association with the Luxembourg project, calling Cancellara’s words into question.
The source, former Astana manager Marc Biver, indicates that Cancellara had been in talks with the Luxembourg project as early as December of 2009. Biver had originally been heading the project and so was responsible for the early progress, thus the dealings with Cancellara.
“Fabian Cancellara knew it. I know Cancellara, and I talked to him personally about it. It happened in December 2009 and January 2010.”
Not only was Cancellara talking about racing with the Luxembourg team at that point, he was used in promotional pieces to help lure sponsors into supporting the upstart program. Cancellara still hasn’t officially signed for Team Schleck, but it looks as close to 100% certain as it’s possible to get without seeing his signature at this point, and with the latest news, it looks like it has been certain for a very, very long time.
On the scale of grievous misshapings of the truth, Cancellara’s is not terribly high on the list, but there’s no question that there were some underhanded dealings going on behind Bjarne Riis’s back. It makes the Saxo Bank exodus look a little less innocent. If Cancellara was a part of the workings that early, then surely, so were the Schlecks. It is interesting to note how long the team has been coming together and how little was known for such a long period of time.