Licence Commission explains controversial Astana team ruling

Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali’s Astana team avoided having their WorldTour licence withdrawn last month after cycling’s Licence Commission deemed that the punishment would be disproportionate to the doping offences committed by some of their riders last season, it has been revealed.

World governing body UCI had asked for the Kazakhstan-based team’s licence to be withdrawn after reviewing the results of an independent audit into the team, which had been ordered after a number of anti-doping infringements by Astana and their feeder team and which was conducted by the Institute of Sport Sciences at the University of Lausanne (ISSUL) earlier this year.

The Licence Commission announced on April 23 that Astana’s licence would not be withdrawn, and the UCI yesterday published details of their ruling.