The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has asked its Licence Commission to ‘undertake a full review of the management and anti-doping policies of the Astana Pro Team’, after three of its riders reported anti-doping infractions during a short time period. ‘This follows the serious concerns raised by the fact that two Astana riders Maxim and Valentin Iglinskiy recently tested positive for EPO and the notification this week that llya Davidenok has returned an Adverse Analytical Finding for anabolic androgenic steroids in a sample collected at the Tour de l’Avenir on 28 August 2014’, read the UCI’s 16 October media release. ‘The rider has the right to request analysis of the B sample and in accordance with UCI Anti-doping Rules has been provisionally suspended until the adjudication of the matter’.

The Astana Pro Team has yet to comment on the Davidenok’s case, but suspended itself from participation in World Tour events, after Valentin and Maxim Iglinskiy returned adverse analytical findings for erythropoietin (EPO). Astana’s self-suspension is part of the rules of the Mouvement Pour un Cyclisme Crédible (MPCC), which it joined in 2013. It applied from 10 October, the start of the Tour of Beijing, until 17 October, and took in the Tour of Emilia and the Grand Prix Bruno Beghelli.

The UCI has already confirmed that Astana will face financial sanctions for breaching its rules requiring World Tour teams to take part in all events. ‘As per the UCI Regulations, it is expected that the team will appear before the Licence Commission within the next month for an assessment of the team’s level of compliance with the ethical criteria so that the appropriate measures can be then taken’, read the UCI’s release. ‘It will be for the Licence Commission to determine whether and to what extent the team and/or its management is responsible for recent events’.