Astana aim to cover new ground starting with Dubai Tour

Astana Pro Cycling Team hope this week’s Dubai Tour marks a new, drug-free start. But team leader Vincenzo Nibali knows questions on doping may prove inescapable.

Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali says it will be hard for the Astana team to outrun suspicion of doping after last year. Lionel Bonaventure / AFP

DUBAI // The name and the shame remains, but Astana Pro Cycling Team hope this week's Dubai Tour marks a new, drug-free start.

The team want to put a series of doping scandals behind them this season, prove to the world they are still capable of winning and, crucially, of doing so ­cleanly.

The Kazakhstan-backed outfit, home to the 2014 Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali, were at the centre of a drug incident last September when brothers Valentin and Maxim Iglinskiy tested positive for EPO. Both men were dismissed by the team.

Sunday, at Jumeirah Beach Hotel, the newly elected president of the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation revealed that disbanding the team entirely had been considered.

Instead, it was decided a fresh start with improved and stricter testing procedures was a better direction in which to proceed.

“I can’t hide the fact that, for a moment maybe, there was a possibility to stop the team,” Darkhan Kaletayev said. “But, at the end of the day, Astana Pro Team is an incredible success project for us in Kazakhstan.

“We have worked with the UCI [cycling’s world governing body] to implement their suggestions, we have introduced passports to track younger riders and we are also going to work with Lausanne University to help improve our policies for anti-doping. We can say now that this Astana team is a new team.”

Nibali, 30, will be joined at Astana this year by Lars Boom, Diego Rosa, Luis Leon Sanchez and a selection of more than 15 other riders.

Nibali competed in Dubai’s inaugural event last year and backed the organisers’ decision to extend the length by 200 kilometres while removing the time-trial stage and replacing it with a short climb.

Despite Nibali’s achievements in 2014, a new season beckoning and Dubai hosting only its second tour event, questions on doping proved inescapable in a 30-minute news conference.

“It is not frustrating, it is normal,” said Nibali of the constant questions on the subject.

“Something happened, so there are questions and we answer them. That is the key thing – we do not hide away.

“What can I say? It is not my fault. Iglinskiy did something, but we will always answer.”

Alexandre Vinokourov, the Olympic gold medallist and general manager of Astana, said his team are “200 per cent committed” to ensuring honest, clean racing. The team have signed agreements with laboratories and testing facilities in Kazakhstan and are making sure the testing process of young riders is more stringent.

Nibali, who became a father for the first time last month, celebrated by being tested by doping control at his house.

“The family scandal with the brothers remains a mystery – even they cannot explain why they did it,” Vinokourov said.

“But we are committed to proving we are clean because nobody wins by doping.

“We intend to win honestly.”

Astana’s earliest opportunity starts on Wednesday with the first stage of the four-day event in the Emirates.

Nibali, who won the Giro d’Italia in 2013, said the race was “close to perfect” last year and this year, with the experience of 2014, will improve even more.

“This race is the most important thing for me at this moment,” he said.

“I expect a very competitive few days here.”

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