Even though the regulations of the Movement for Credible Cycling dictate that every movement member is obligated to withdraw from racing for eight days starting from the next World Tour event if two of their riders tested positive within twelve months, Astana will participate in the upcoming Il Lombardia and Tour of Almaty.

Two riders from the Kazakh team, Valentin and Maxim Iglinskiy, tested positive within only three months, but while the former immediately confessed to using EPO and was suspended by the squad, the latter asked for counter-analysis of the B-sample. Thus, Astana manager Alexandre Vinokourov insist that the team is not obligated to auto-suspend themselves before the result of the second test in officially announced.

“The rider is suspended provisionally and shall remain out of competition in anticipation of the results from the B analysis,” said Astana manager Alexandre Vinokourov.

“Our regulations are clear: they say that the principle of auto-suspension is applied only after the counter-analysis of the B-sample,” MPCC president Roger Legeay told Cyclingnews on Thursday morning.

“Alexandre Vinokourov called me last night and he told me then that he hadn’t talked to the rider yet, so I asked him to get the rider’s position.

“If the rider doesn’t want a counter-analysis then the team would auto-suspend itself. If he asks for the B-sample, however, we must wait for the result of the counter-analysis. That’s been the rule from the very start.”