Katusha have escaped a suspension from competition after Eduard Vorganov became the team's second rider in 12 months to test positive for a banned substance.
The Disciplinary Commission, an independent branch of the UCI to which the matter was referred on February 6, issued its verdict on Tuesday, and ruled that the conditions for a team suspension have not been met under article 7.12.1 of the UCI Anti-Doping Rules, which suggest a ban of 15-45 days for a team with two positives in the space of a year.
The Katusha team risked missing a sizeable chunk of racing, which might have included the Tour of Oman, Vuelta a Andalucía, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico and other races.
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The UCI rules state that a team suspension is enforceable when the second doping case is notified to the athlete and team. Today's verdict of the Disciplinary Commission hinges on the first case -that of Luca Paolini's positive test for cocaine at last year's Tour de France- with a team suspension being deemed "inappropriate and disproportionate" in light of the "recreational" nature of Paolini's use of the banned substance.
Given that Paolini is understood not to have taken the drug for performance enhancement, the Disciplinary Commission decided that it was unfair to hit the Russian team with a ban that is designed to punish "teams that lack control of doping for sporting purposes by their athletes".
“With regard to the [Paolini case, it has been] established that the rider's taking of cocaine was not related to an intention to influence sporting performance but was rather taken on a "recreational" basis," reasoned the president of the Disciplinary Commission in a statement from the UCI. The ruling is likely to spark a refining of the UCI rules concerning team suspensions.
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