The recent Astana doping cases highlighted for all to see the issues between the MPCC and the UCI.

Astana could face a fine of 100,000 CHF as they missed the Tour of Beijing, yet the MPCC, which Astana is a member of, dictates that a team should suspend themselves from racing for eight days if they have two positives in less than a year.

UCI president Brian Cookson told Cyclingnews that he wants to work closely with the MPCC but warned that should the MPCC continue to operate outside of WADA rules, they may be hurt as a consequence.

 “We want to work closely with the MPCC and they do a lot of things that are good for the sport, but at the end of the day we need to make sure that it is the UCI’s rules that govern the sport and the MPCC rules are recommendations,” he told Cyclingnews.

“If we step outside the WADA code on anything to do with doping, that would be the time that we would be challenged by lawyers and we would probably lose. We as a governing body signed up to the WADA code and we need to use the strength of the WADA code and the strength of our relationship with WADA to reinforce our stance on doping at all points.”

Cookson was critical of the Astana team and he spoke on the fact that as a consequence of the positive tests, they may lose their WorldTour license. Yet he will not intervene with the License Commission when they make their decision on what to do with Astana.

“I want to let the license commission do their work, it’s not for me to interfere with that, and they are entirely independent. They will make their recommendations back to us, which will cover the issue of the license for Astana.”