This past February, the UCI requested that the Kazakh team’s WorldTour license be revoked as a result of an audit conducted by the Institute of Sport Sciences of the University of Lausanne (ISSUL). It came after five positive tests were discovered in a year for riders who were associated with the team, two of which came from the Astana Continental team and have since been suspended.

Despite the inevitable possibility of losing WorldTour status, over in Malaysia it is business as usual for the team and its riders.

"It's not my problem because I'm a rider and I do my job," said Andrea Guardini, who has three stages to his name already. "It's a political problem, I don't see anything, it's not our problem, we do our job and that’s it."

His comments echo those of Tour de France champion Vincezno Nibali, who, ahead of Strade Bianche last weekend, stated that the situation was in fact all about politics.

Valerio Agnoli, one of Guardini’s key lieutenants, agreed with his leader’s sentiments in similarly cagey fashion. "The riders think about racing and don’t think about this situation," he said. "Every guy is concentrating on the race."

Even at management level, there is little acknowledgement of any impact of the issue in its entirety.

"It is absolutely not affecting the team here," said directeur sportif Dmitri Sedoun. "We are still easy because we know how it’s working with our team and we don’t have any problems so we go ahead like every time – nothing has changed."

Should Astana ultimately lose their license, they could be faced with a situation where their key riders are forced to look elsewhere for contracts that will allow them to continue to take part in WorldTour races. When asked if he has considered his future in this light, Agnoli said: "Today I think about the tour of Malaysia, tomorrow I think about tomorrow. I race. I only race."