After Astana opted to allow Lars Boom to start the Tour de France with low cortisol levels, breaching MPCC rules, the MPCC has excluded the Kazakh team from the group.

Boom’s low cortisol levels do not violate any of WADA or the UCI’s rules, meaning he has done nothing wrong, but the MPCC say that rider’s cant start races if they have abnormally low levels of cortisol.

The MPCC made the decision at a board of directors meeting, claiming Astana did not respect its voluntary rules of conduct. The Astana team was temporarily suspended from the MPCC at the end of July but is now out of the voluntary association that say it “aims to promote the idea of a clean cycling, notably based on the concepts of transparency, accountability and mobilization of its members.”

This is not the first time the MPCC has asked a team to stop a rider starting a race: Bardiani-CSF also ignored the cortisol rule before the Giro d'Italia and left the MPCC, while the LottoNL-Jumbo team respected the rule and stopped George Bennett from racing. It claimed that tests showed that Bennett was kept out of the Giro d'Italia unjustly and the MPCC's refusal to change the cortisol rules 'forced' the Dutch WorldTour team to leave. Boom’s test was taken on July 2 and the results came back the day before the race, and under UCI rules Astana weren’t allowed to swap Boom for another rider.

In further criticism of the Astana team, the MPCC board said it approves “the firm attitude of the UCI which has been strict in the application of its rules by excluding Vincenzo Nibali and his sporting director from the Vuelta”, suggesting that video footage should be used to discipline riders.

The MPCC also supported Androni-Sidermec manager Gianni Savio after he respected the MPCC rules and voluntarily suspended his team in August after two cases of doping in his team. The MPCC also said it supports the team’s move to sue the riders who have been found positive for doping.