Despite the many doping cases, Astana still has a WorldTour license. The Belgian team doctor Joost De Maeseneer expresses relieg in an interview with Sporza: "We have always believed because we deserve it. The UCI License Commission has used common sense."

After five doping cases - two in the WorldTour team and three in the continental team - Astana has had to defend themselves before the UCI License Commission. There were serious doubts about the team's future in the WorldTour and so team doctor Joost De Maeseneer is glad but also a bit surprised by yesterday's decision.

"Personally, I had expected that they would postpone the decision for one or two weeks in the hope that there would be some positive news.

"Why? Because there has seen a lot of negative information about us in the media during the last few days." He refers to the link that the with doping doctor Michele Ferrari that has gained a lot of attention in the Italian press, with the Padova investigation claiming that the banned doctor visited the team camp last year.

"But I think the committee has used common sense. We have demonstrated that we are working properly. But with the additional information from the past few days the situation was more difficult."

De Maeseneer refuses any accusations about organized doping: "We know what we told the committee one month ago. We had two positive cases with the Iglinskiy brothers. What has happened since then? There have been three doping cases in the Astana continental team but we have nothing to do with it.

"There was still the Ferrari case. But that was so vague and went back to 2010 and 2011. Some riders in our team, like Scarponi, have already paid for it years ago. That's basically all old news. After that there was the story that a photo showed Ferrari at the Astana camp. Eventually you get worried.

"But we have always believed that we would get the license, because we think we deserve it. We have demonstrated that we do things perfectly. We had bad luck with two positive cases. I speak about the last two years where I have been the main doctor. "

De Maeseneer also told the UCI that the team wants to do even better in the future : "This mainly has to do with communication, we have 30 riders who speak different languages. Besides me, there are three doctors. Each of them is responsible for ten riders and he will report to me."

The team can now look forward to 2015: "I am very happy for our new riders who are all eager to train," said De Maeseneer. "And for Vincenzo Nibali, who won the Tour in a big way. Everyone began to ask questions. The riders are relieved. In 2015, we will continue our work and hopefully we will have no problems."