Tuesday 13 January 2015 11:14, UK
Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford believes the International Cycling Union needs to take a stronger stance in the fight against doping.
Cycling's world governing body has issued a WorldTour licence to Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali's Astana team, despite five riders from the Kazakh squad having failed drugs tests last year.
Brailsford told Sky Sports News HQ: "The job of the UCI is to govern the sport and they need to have the appropriate governing structures in place. They have changed some rules this year, which is a step in the right direction, but personally I would like to see a stronger lead.
"As a governing body you cannot say, 'We do not have the right rules to manage the situation'.
"Leadership is about overcoming obstacles so you can manage the situation and for me the Astana question falls absolutely at the door of the UCI. We are looking at them and encouraging them to step up and manage this situation."
Team Sky rider Chris Froome, the 2013 Tour de France winner, was equally forthright in his belief that the UCI needs to take a more proactive lead to protect the integrity of the sport.
He said: "The pressure falls on the UCI. They should have these kind of rules in place. If you have multiple positives you don't get your Pro Tour licence or whatever the case would be it should be a lot clearer from the UCI's standpoint and they're the ones who need to make that call."
The UCI issued a statement from its president, Brian Cookson, in response to Brailsford's comments.
The statement read: "Under new leadership the UCI has made many significant steps forward in the last year on anti-doping, including opening itself up to an unprecedented level of independent scrutiny from the Cycling Independent Reform Commission, having a full audit of its anti-doping operations performed by iNADO, making rule changes that will enhance the UCI’s powers to sanction riders and teams and establishing an anti-doping tribunal that will allow consistent, clear and fast decisions on cases and lift the burden of this work from national federations.
"There are strict conditions attaching to the renewal of the Astana team licence, including a detailed review of the teams anti-doping policies and practices.
"This case is not closed and we are due to receive the findings of ISSUL early in February. As stated in the Licence Commission's decision “In the event that the audit would lead to reveal deficiencies or in case of faulty implementation of the internal operational requirements or if another doping case would occur within the team during the 2015 season, the UCI would refer the matter to the Licence Commission for a determination on an eventual withdrawal of the licence.”
