Astana Continental team ‘suspended indefinitely’ by Vinokourov after Fedosseyev’s positive test

Reacting to yet another positive test pertaining to an Astana-linked team, Alexandre Vinokourov has suspended the Continental squad connected to the latest doping issue.

The move follows Wednesday’s announcement by the UCI that the Kazakhstani rider Artur Fedosseyev had a positive A sample for anabolic androgenic steroids in a test taken on August 16.

The 20 year old rider was competing with the Astana Continental team this season. He is the third rider from the squad to test positive for anabolic androgenic steroids; on October 16 the UCI revealed that a third rider, Kazakhstan’s national champion Ilya Davidenok, tested positive on August 27, while Victor Okishev was confirmed as having a positive A sample on November 18.

Davidenok, Okishev and Fedosseyev all raced with the Astana Continental team this year, although the first of those became a stagiarie with the WorldTour Astana team in August.

Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday, Vinokourov confirmed that he had “suspended the Continental team indefinitely. The young riders are crazy if they have not yet realized that this is no longer the cycling of doping.

“I want this to be a signal, a blast in their ear of our federation,” he continued. “As we’ve often requested, the Kazakh Federation has to do more controls and be more severe. They’ve got our full support.”

La Gazzetta confirmed that the federation itself is undergoing a big change, with the president Kairat Kelimbetov, who apparently had significant control over Continental team, being forced to hand over power to Vinokourov’s friend Darkan Mangeldiev.

Crisis in Kazakhstani cycling

The run of Astana-linked positives began this autumn when UCI confirmed on September 10 that Valentin Iglinskiy had failed a doping test taken on the opening day of the Eneco Tour on August 11.

The A sample had revealed traces of EPO. The rider waived the right to have his B sample tested and was fired from the Astana team.

On October 1st the UCI’s list of provisionally suspended riders revealed that his older brother Maxim Iglinskiy had also failed an A sample test for the same substance.

The former Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Strade Bianche winner was part of Vincenzo Nibali’s Tour de France winning team and was tested on August 1st, one day before he finished 26th in the Clasica San Sebastian.

He too has decided against getting the B sample tested, although not before the Astana team indicated that he would do so and were able to ride Il Lombardia and the Tour of Almaty as a result.

A member of the MPCC anti-doping organisation, the team would otherwise have had to sit out those races under that body’s rules.

The news of the positive tests for Davidenok, Okishev and Fedosseyev subsequently followed.

Inevitably, the five positives between two identically-titled teams has led to calls for strict action to be taken. The UCI’s Licence Commission is already investigating the WorldTour team over the positive tests by the Iglinskiy brothers, and is expected to announce that decision early next month.

Some have interpreted Vinokourov’s suspension of the Astana Continental team as a bid to appear to be acting against doping and to separate the two squads, thus trying to avoid being punished by the Licence Commission.

Indeed he insists that the two WorldTour team positives and the other three must be considered separately. “People must understand that this is another reality that has nothing to do with this,” he said. “We only have jerseys and a name in common.”

However, as La Gazzetta points out, Vinokourov had the power to suspend the smaller team, implying some element of control over it. In addition to that, the Continental team’s manager Dmitri Sedoun is also a directeur sportif of the WorldTour team.

Despite all this, Vinokourov believes that the WorldTour team will be cleared to remain in the UCI’s top division when the Licence Commission makes its decision.

“There is no problem for the license,” he said. “We have provided all the explanations that have been requested.”

clyde

The problem starts right there in the photo - Vino. There’s no credibility to question with an unrepentant guy like him hanging around.
James L

This has nothing to do with Nibali’s TdF win. Why the picture? It creates an association in the mind which I think casts Nibali in a poor light. His win was not aided by doped continental riders. I absolutely agree that Vino is open to criticism due to his unrepentant stance regarding his own doping but let’s not get into the swamp of ‘guilt by association’ when it comes to judging riders. I didn’t see Froome smeared with the same brush when Jonathan T-L tested positive, why the need to continually question Nibali? By all means retain a critical position on Nibali’s own performances but let’s leave it at that, rather than casting doubt based on the bad choices of other riders. Can we not just have a picture of the continental squad, or those who have actually tested positive please.
- Larry Theobald
  
  That’s all well and good except the “bad choices of other riders” stuff is getting very old these days. One of those making a “bad choice” raced on the same squad with Nibali at LeTour, so I fail to see anything wrong with using this photo. If pro cycling continues to let teams toss aside riders like used toilet tissue when they get caught doping while suffering no other penalties, the sport has a dim future. It may continue to be interesting entertainment but the sporting values are increasingly questionable. If UCI can’t/won’t get tough on this, I hope ASO will. I realize having Astana miss out in 2008 didn’t seem to hammer the anti-doping message home to Vino and Co. but perhaps letting them sit out the 2015 edition might? If nothing else it’ll send a message to the rest of the teams and the public that doping is unacceptable
  - James L
    
    I see what you mean, I suppose it has been rather too easy for the Astana team to distance themselves from individual riders, but when there are a number testing positive it raises questions about the culture of the setup in general, and whether there should be potential sanctions for teams as well as individuals, in order to put the onus on teams to be actively anti-doping. It may be all too easy for a team to benefit from a doped up rider before discarding them, as you rightly mentioned. Perhaps while there is nothing strictly wrong with this picture, my feeling was that it is unhelpful in this particular case where the article is largely about the continental team, however, links to the pro team acknowledged, I appreciate your perspective. I think that it is hard to remain both optimistic and realistic with regards to the sport you love!
MikeP

Suspend your team in the off-season, when there’s no real racing going on. Pretty tough stance indeed…

Doesn’t impact racing at all and I’d guess the ‘self imposed’ suspension will be lifted by race season unless their licence is taken before then?

Astana Continental team ‘suspended indefinitely’ by Vinokourov after Fedosseyev’s positive test

by Shane Stokes - November 28, 2014

Crisis in Kazakhstani cycling