Brent Copeland, Lampre Merida general manager, has explained his choice to leave the Movement for a Credible Cycling (MPCC). Italian rider Diego Ulissi was handed a nine-month ban after testing positive for salbutamol and MPCC rules state that each team can not hire riders who have received a doping suspensions of six months or longer. But, Copeland said that with the UCI rules, he can not rid himself of the rider because Ulissi’s suspension expires before the end of his contract.

“It’s difficult for us to fire a rider. As far as labour laws are concerned it’s really difficult,” Copeland told Cyclingnews. “So you find yourself in a situation where if the rider is given two years or more [of a suspension], you can fire him. If he’s still got a contract by the time his suspension is up – which was the case with Diego, who got nine months – it’s difficult to fire him. So we were put in a situation where it was difficult to fire him. The MPCC said we had to either get rid of Ulissi or leave the organisation, so what do you do? You have a labour law civil case or you have the UCI against you.”

Copland explained that the MPCC rules are not very obvious. Article four of the MPCC charter states that teams “can't hire a rider tested positive and suspended more than six months,” something Lampre felt did not apply to Ulissi. “Their rule isn’t clear and that’s the biggest problem. The rule says you cannot hire a rider,” Copeland said. “But we’re not hiring a rider: he already had a contract to the end of the year.”