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Astana Cleared to Race

astana_newsAstana have been cleared to race by the UCI despite president Brian Cookson requesting a withdrawal of the team’s WorldTour licence – the independent UCI Licence Commission has decided to allow them to continue racing.

 

Astana was granted a provisional WordTour licence in December and subjected to an independent audit. The Commission is now said to be satisfied that a ‘reorganisation of all the support personnel of its riders in order to strengthen its fight against doping” meets it’s requirements. The Kazah team will keep its existing registration as long as it complies with “special measures.’

 

However, the results of the audit, carried out by the Sport Sciences Institute of the University of Lausanne (ISSUL), raised some red flags, including a continued relationship with banned trainer Michele Ferrari.

 

Cookson’s original position that ‘Teams have to take their responsibilities very, very seriously in terms of how they monitor riders, how they support riders and coach riders’ included a nod to the Ferrari rumours reported by Gazzetta dello Sport, ‘Others who are allegedly floating around on the sidelines, the people who have been banned, there are rumours that they are still acting as intermediaries, it is a warning to them as well.’

 

The trigger for the original enquiry was a pair of WorldTour team riders testing positive for EPO and several doping cases in its Continental affiliate. Both events raised concerns about the team’s overall structure and ethics.

 

Cookson said, in conclusion, that the situation was ‘very frustrating, but we had to work with legal tools and I had to accept that.’ The announcement finally clears the way for Vincenzo Nibali to defend his 2014 Tour de France title without fear of exclusion.

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Astana Licence Under Threat

astanaAstana, home to Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali, is to have its WorldTour Licence reviewed after a third member of the squad, llya Davidenok, failed a doping test. Davidenok tested positive for anabolic steroids following a test on August 27, whilst brothers Maxim and Valentin Iglinskiy both tested positive for EPO (erythropoietin) earlier in August.

 

The International Cycling Union’s (UCI) licence commission will review Astana’s anti-doping policies and wider management conduct. In a statement the UCI say the decision to review, ‘follows the serious concerns raised by the fact that two Astana riders Maxim and Valentin Iglinskiy recently tested positive for EPO and the notification this week that llya Davidenok has returned an Adverse Analytical Finding for anabolic androgenic steroids in a sample collected at the Tour de l’Avenir on 28th August 2014… The rider has the right to request the analysis of the B sample and in accordance with UCI Anti-doping Rules has been provisionally suspended until the adjudication of the matter.’

 

Astana’s Team Manager, Alexander Vinokourov, completed a two-year bad for doping in 2009 before going on to take Gold in the Men’s Road Race at the London 2012 Olympics.

 

Further information on Astana at proteam-astana.com

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Fabian Cancellara Takes Vuelta TT Stage

Fabian Cancellara Takes Vuelta TT StageDespite a category 3 summit half way through route, RadioShack rider Fabian Cancellara showed a return to form in preparation for the upcoming Worlds by winning Vuelta a España stage 11, the 38.8km Individual Time Trial in Tarazona. An early best was posted by current World Time Trial champion Tony Martin of Omega Pharma – Quick-Step with a time of 51’37”, but Cancellara upped the game by stopping the clock at 51minutes dead, more than half-a-minute faster than Martin. No one else came close to the top times and third place went to Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r-La Mondiale) at +1’24”. Astana’s Vincenzo Nibali finished fourth to secure a 33second lead over Saxo-Tinkoff’s Nicolas Roche in the GC.

 

Speaking of his stage victory Fabian Cancellara commented: ‘I’m happy that is over.  It was a very hard parcours that was not perfect for a specialist, but I said to myself that I needed to do my race at my own pace and just find the right rhythm for myself… The uphill section was very rough especially with the wind. That caused a lot of disruption of my rhythm. Plus yesterday was the rest day so you never know how your body will respond on the day after and I’ve put in a lot of work in the first ten days of the Vuelta working for Chris Horner.’

 

The Vuelta a España continues with the 164.2km route from Maella to Tarragon and conclude in Madrid on September 15. For more information on the race see the Cyclo feature here.

 

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Vincenzo Nibali wins the Giro 2013

Vincenzo Nibali wins the Giro 2013Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali has won the 2013 Giro d’Italia in an overall time of 84hours 53’28″, four minutes, 43seconds ahead of Team Sky’s Rigoberto Uran in second and five minutes, 52seconds ahead of third-placed Cadel Evans (BMC). The Astana rider was all-but assured victory after yesterday’s epic stage victory, amidst freezing, blizzard conditions for a summit finish in which he retained his race leader’s pink jersey meaning that today’s easy pack position proved more than enough for him to claim victory.

 

Britain’s Mark Cavendish took today’s Stage 21 win; the flat 197km run into Brescia was always going to fit the sprinter and with plenty of points still available he grabbed the opportunity and did what he does best. His effort made him the first sprinter in five years to win the Giro’s coveted red points leader’s jersey and only the fifth ever to win its equivalent across all three Grand Tours (he joins legend Eddy Merckx, Alessandro Petacchi, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Laurent Jalabert.)

 

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Vincenzo Nibali Wins Tirreno-Adriatico

Vincenzo Nibali Wins Tirreno-Adriatico After seven days of action – including some apocalyptic weather and that hill which proved too steep for many – Astana rider Vincenzo Nibali has won the Tirreno-Adriatico. Nibali took only 12th place on the final 9.2km Individual Time Trrial stage in San Benedetto del Tronto (won, almost inevitably by Omega Pharma – Quick-Step’s Tony Martin in 10’25”) but it was more than enough to hold off Sky’s contender for CG Chris Froome who took sixth on the stage, on +15, forcing him to settle for second on the overall podium. Saxo-Tinkoff’s Alberto Contador filled out the third place, 52 seconds adrift of Nibali’s total time of 28h, 8minutes and 17seconds.

 

Organisers of the event had been strongly criticised for the tear-inducing climb of the Muro di Sant’Elpidio that dominated Monday’s stage; the 27% incline caused the retirement of a huge proportion of the field including Andy Schleck and Mark Cavendish and reshaped the field to such an extent it effectively lost Froome his chances of victory. Race Director Michele Acquarone took to twitter to say, ‘If riders are not happy, fans are not happy and I’m not happy too. Sometimes it’s not easy to find the right balance.’