The drama about the Astana team with its doping positives, the uncertainly about the WorldTour license and the possible links with Dr. Ferrari raised several questions about the future of the squad. Jakob Fuglsang finds the situation serious and hopes that the new accusations are not tru. During the 2015 season, he will consider whether to continue at the Kazakh team when his contract expires.
"Obviously, I have to consider things carefully and that's is what I do. Then we'ss see when my contract expires. But it is evident that I will have to take it into account what has happened in the time before this season. There's no doubt about that," he tells TV2 Sporten from the Astana training camp in Calpe.
Last Wednesday Astana finally received their WorldTour license after a lengthy investigation by the UCI License Commission. But the problems have just started for Astana. A new doping case has come to light in Italy where Astana is accused of organized doping and contact with Michele Ferrari.
Based on this, Anti Doping Danmark and the Danish Cycling Federation sent a message to Fuglsang: Consider carefully who you are cooperating with. Fuglsang agrees and has even considered finding a new team.
"Of course it is something that I have considered, but pretty quickly I decided to put everything behind me again. In the end, it was all about whether we got a license or not. In this case, it arrived so late that it would have been very difficult to find a new team. Maybe even impossible if I needed a team at the same level. Hence, I have not done more than that and quickly realized that I had to make that decision if we didn't get the license."
Fuglsang refuses that he has been involved in any kind of doping.
"I know nothing about it," he said. "And definitely nothing about organized doping. If that is going on, I haven't noticed it. I think that it belong to the past if there has been any kind of organized doping in this team. They try to follow the new wave and try to have a clean team. At least, that is my impression.
"In one way, I can undertsna it [that people wants Astana to lose the license]. But one also has to remember that there may have been two cases in the team but the three other positives belonged to the continental team. It has the same name but is a team that has nothing to do with the WorldTour team. In one way, I think it is wrong to link those five cases but of course I understand that it looks like the five cases are related to the same team. That is unfortunate.
"Furthermore, the team has had to work hard to get a license and as far as I understand, a sports institute in Lausanne will have to make a report about the team to find out whether the team has organized anything. So it is not over yet. But with the current rules, it is difficult for the license commission not to give us the license."
Fuglsang is worried about the new allegations in Italy.
"Of course I am concerned," he said. "Or maybe it is not worrying. It is annoying that new and old cases are constantly surfacing. One has to remember that the Italian media have mainly been dealing with old cases that hopefully have been closed. I hope that the new riders who have been mentioned in the media and are in the team now, have nothing to do with doping and that you can believe it when they claim that they have only had contact with Ferrari to obtain training schedules. Or that their names have just been mentioned in certain conversations.
"It is a serious situation. The cases in the Italian media are pretty serious. If that is true and some of them haven't been sanctioned yet, it could be very serious for the team and then we could lose the license. So of course it is a seriosu situation for the team."
Fuglsag refuses that he has ever had any contact with Ferrari.
"No, I have never met Ferrari. I have seen that he has been denying it. As far as I know, nobody from the team has met him. I don't know whether it is true or just speculation. As long as we have not seen any photos, it is hard to say more than that."
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