Astana met with UCI officials on Thursday to defend their team ahead of the decision on whether or not the team will be allowed to keep its WorldTour licence.

The team would not be eligible to ride the Tour de France and other big races, denying defending Tour champion Vincenzo Nibali the chance to defend his crown. The team may also have to step down to Continental level, riding smaller races and having to get rid of some of their riders.

Astana were initially given a WT lcence by the UCI, but the sport’s governing body called for a review into it after the report by the Lausanne University’s Institute of Sport Sciences (ISSUL) on last year’s doping cases, where Astana, whether in their pro of development team, popped five positives.

“The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) confirms that representatives of the UCI, the Institute of Sport Sciences of the University of Lausanne (ISSUL) and the Astana Pro Team have today [Thursday] appeared before the License Commission,” said a brief UCI statement on the matter.

“As the proceeding is pending, the UCI will not be making any further comment on this matter.”

However, Astana has promised to appeal the case, which would take a while and would most likely allow Nibali to ride the Tour de France before any decision to allow the team to keep or lose their license is made.