Astana’s decision to auto-suspend themselves from participation in the Tour of Beijing in order to meet the MPCC requirements, forced Lieuwe Westra to change his initial race programme and prematurely end his 2014 season. As a consequence, the 32-year old Dutchman confessed to be saddened by both doping cases at Kazakh team and missing this week’s Giro dell’Emilia and GP Bruno Beghelli.

The Kazakh team was forced to withdraw from participation in the upcoming Tour of Beijing, held from October 10 to 14, to meet the MPCC rules. They state that every member of the movement is obligated to suspend itself for eight days beginning with the next WorldTour event on the calendar if a team has two positive tests in a twelve-month period.

It was a case for Astana, as Maxim’s positive test was revealed only three weeks after his younger brother’s, Valentin, who immediately confessed to using EPO and received a four-year ban.

An unpleasant situation significantly changed Westra’s plans, as the 32-year old Dutchman was training hard last two weeks in order to line up at the Giro dell’Emilia and GP Bruno Beghelli in best possible condition.

“Of course I am disappointed that we had to withdraw from these two beautiful races, two weeks of hard training will coma to nothing. However, I perfectly understand team’s decision and I think it’s very important to follow the rules implied by the MPCC,” Westra wrote on his official website.

“Both doping cases are saddening, but I am convinced that those actions were taken by riders independently and the team had nothing to do with it.”