Big week for the Astana team. The UCI will next week release details of the University of Lausanne’s report in to Astana and from that update its position on the Kazakh team’s license.

In December, Astana received his World Tour license under the condition of being independently assessed by the department of sports science of the University of Lausanne : “We have had the report from ISSUL.” UCI President Brian Cookson confirmed on Friday. “That report has gone back to the licence commission and we are looking at that at the moment. We expect to be in a position to make an announcement about that in the next few days”, according to Cycling Weekly.

This audit is focused on the anti-doping procedures and the philosophy, strategy and operational details of the team’s management after five positive doping tests in 2015. 

In September 2014, it emerged that Valentin Iglinskiy has returned a positive test for EPO at the Eneco Tour, he confessed to doping to the team and was immediately sacked, three weeks later Valentin's brother, Maxim Iglinskiy was provisionally suspended by the UCI for an EPO-positive on August 1. It was later announced that Astana withdrew themselves from the Tour of Beijing per the MPCC rules, who state that a team with 2 positives in a short period of time must not participate in the next World Tour event.

Subsequently a sample taken at the Tour de l'Avenir in August from Ilya Davidenok, a rider with the Astana Continental Team and a stagiaire with the Astana Pro Team, tested positive for anabolic steroids. Davidenok was provisionally suspended, and a review into the team's licence was announced following the positive tests for Davidenok and the Iglinskiy brothers.

But the story will not finish. Indeed, Cookson confirmed that the UCI is still waiting to receive some details about an other doping case: the Italian Padua investigation. “We have asked for the report, but we haven’t had that yet. We’ve read what’s in the media but we can’t act on media reports. These are all issues that the Licence Commission can take in to account if they are asked to look at this situation again.” Cookson said.