The UCI’s proceedings with the Astana team over its WorldTour licence have been definitively closed, with no resulting sanctions for the Kazakh team, who have been granted a place in cycling’s top tier for 2016.
A string of doping indiscretions in 2014 triggered an extensive audit of the team by the Institute of Sport Sciences of the University of Lausanne (ISSUL), which led the UCI to recommend that the team’s 2015 WorldTour licence be revoked. The Licence Commission decided in late April that Astana would be allowed to retain their status on the condition of strict monitoring over a four-month period. That period came to an end in September, and ISSUL once again reported back to the Licence Commission, who published a reasoned decision with the following conclusion.
“The Commission decides: That the proceedings for the withdrawal of the UCI WorldTeam licence awarded to the Astana UCI WorldTeam are now devoid of purpose and are closed.”
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The monitoring period, which began in May, had a broad remit, covering the team’s organisation, culture, and communications, with the hope of establishing a “structure that would allow it to avoid, as far as possible, the doping cases that had affected the team in the 2014 season.”
ISSUL reported back to the Licence Commission on two occasions – firstly on June 19 and then on September 23 – and its findings were largely favourable, pointing to the implementation of communication channels within the team, improved frameworks relating to race management, medical matters, and scheduling, along with the recruitment of more Russian-speaking staff.
“At the end of the probationary period of four months that ISSUL’s mandate has lasted, it can be noted that, on the whole, the situation of the Astana team can be considered as very significantly improved compared with that revealed by the audit report ordered by the Commission in December 2014, in terms of the training plans for riders, the team staff, race management and medical care,” read the Licence Commission’s reasoned decision.
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