Astana team manager Alexandre Vinokourov has confirmed that Lars Boom will start the Tour de France despite failing a pre-race MPCC cortisol test.
He told a gathering of journalists the news as his riders prepared to go for a morning ride before this afternoon opening time trial of the Tour de France in Utrecht.
The Astana team was hoping that the UCI would allow them to replace the Dutchman with Alessandro Vanotti but with the sports governing body irremovable after confirming the official start list, Vinokourov has decided to disregard the rules of the MPCC (Movement for Credible Cycling) despite agreeing to be a member of the voluntary association that was created in the wake of a long series of doping scandals.
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According to an official statement from the Astana team, the UCI said there were no valid grounds to allow an eventual late substitution because under UCI rules, the low cortisol level was not a risk to the riders' health.
"According to our medical team it (a low cortisol level) is not a danger to the rider's health and so he can start. That's clear. We're going to start with nine riders. We can't start with eight riders," L'Equipe reported Vinokourov as saying.
"The MPCC says we have to replace the rider in the case of a low cortisol level. We wanted to change the rider, Vanotti came to the Tour this morning to replace Boom but the UCI said no because you can't change a rider after the directeur sportif meeting (when rider names and numbers are confirmed). The meeting was held at 10:30 on Friday, the rider analysis arrived at 2:30pm."
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