Representatives, lawyers and even riders from the Astana team are expected to attend the UCI Licence Commission hearing in Lausanne on Thursday as the Kazakhstani teams fights to save its reputation and place in the 2015 WorldTour.
In recent days the team has cranked up its public defence, with the Kazakhstani Cycling Federation president Darkhan Kaletaev insisting it has done everything possible to fight the problem of doping. He claimed in a message published on the team’s website that Astana and the Kazakhstani Federation can play an active role in the fight against doping alongside the UCI and WADA.
However it seems the pro-active stance and announcements could be too late to save the team.
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UCI President Brian Cookson is adamant that the UCI Licence Commission should withdraw Astana’s WorldTour licence, but has yet to address what consequences the withdrawal of a WorldTour licence could have on the sport, and the team's riders and staff, mid-season.
The UCI has based its request for revoking Astana’s licence on two key new elements. The anti-doping violations in 2014 by Maxim and Valentin Iglinsky or Alexandre Vinokourov’s positive for blood doping in 2007 were not enough to refuse Astana a licence in December. However the UCI believes the new evidence gathered by Italian police during the Padua police investigation, and the results of the audit produced by the Institute of Sport Sciences of the University of Lausanne (ISSUL), represent a strong case that will stand the test of an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The UCI has always refused to give details on the methods and conclusions of the ISSUL audit but it seems the Astana team is under fire not because of specific violations of UCI or WADA anti-doping rules but because it has not lived up to the ethical and organisational standards established up by the ISSUL experts.
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