Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

The cycling team that Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali rides for got an elite license for the 2015 season even after some squad members failed drug tests.

Cycling’s ruling body Union Cycliste Internationale said it gave conditional registration to the Kazakhstan-backed Astana team after a panel reviewed its conduct. Failure to get the status would have meant Nibali might not have been able to defend his title.

The license commission found that the team’s antidoping and rider support measures had “defaulted” and are being reorganized, UCI said in a statement on its website yesterday. Astana will be audited by the Institute of Sport Sciences at the University of Lausanne and will adopt operational requirements starting in 2015, two years before they are compulsory for all teams.

“In the case of the Astana Pro Team, this remains a very serious situation for our sport given the number of doping cases,” UCI President Brian Cookson said in the statement. “Meanwhile, the team will have to comply with the two requirements imposed by the License Commission. The combined effect of this is that the Astana Pro Team can be considered very much to be on probation.”

Riders Maxim and Valentin Iglinskiy, brothers from Kazakhstan, tested positive for stamina-boosting drug erythropoietin, or EPO, this year. Three riders on Astana’s second-tier team have also had positive drug tests.

Another doping case this season could result in withdrawal of the license, UCI said. The Astana team, named after the capital of Kazakhstan, was bankrolled by that country since 2006.

Astana’s general manager Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping at the 2007 Tour de France. Alberto Contador failed a drug test in winning the 2010 Tour with the team and was stripped of the title.

UCI rejected the registration of Team Europcar, saying it didn’t fulfill the financial criteria.