With Astana facing expulsion from the WorldTour, star rider Vincenzo Nibali has written a letter to the UCI licensing commission to support his team. Extracts from the letter have been published in Italian paper La Gazzetta dello Sport, which Nibali wrote with the help of his lawyer Fausto Malucchi.

“The team, winner of the 2013 Giro d’Italia and 2014 Tour de France, is a symbol of clean and honest sport,” the letter reads, according to the newspaper.

“The team must continue to participate in all competitions. It is in the best interests of cycling, of sport and of justice.”

The team had five positive tests last year between its WorldTour and development teams and has also been investigated due to organized, systematic doping procedures going on within the team.

Nibali himself has never had a blot on his copybook and has always campaigned for clean cycling, being one of only six men in history to have won all three grand Tours, completing the hat trick when he took out the Tour last year.

“Nibali is universally known as a symbol of the fight against doping, and we believe it is very important for a team to have as a captain an athlete with this level of ethics,” reads the letter, written by Malucchi on Nibali’s behalf.

“The audit is certainly important in theoretical terms, but certain lacking elements render it weak. It is the first attempt to evaluate a cycling team, but it considers only Astana, and it does not contrast the team with other teams. It lacks a basis for comparison.

“How can you say that only Astana does not merit a license if the research was not carried out on all the teams in the WorldTour?”

Nibali is currently in Tenerife training ahead of his Tour defence and his build up to the event. Even if the team loses its licence, Astana are likely to appeal and this would allow Nibali to ride the Tour, as the appeal would take longer than July to be processed and a verdict reached.