The Team Sky principal, Dave Brailsford, has called on the UCI to show stronger leadership in the wake of the governing body’s perceived lack of action in allowing Astana to keep their World Tour licence.
The UCI president, Brian Cookson, has warned Astana, for whom the Tour de France champion, Vincenzo Nibali, rides, that they are “on a very short leash” following a series of doping offences within the team but the UCI licencing commission did not revoke their licence.
The Kazakh team will also be audited in 2015 by Lausanne University but according to Cycling News, the governing body’s own rules prevent them from withdrawing Astana’s licence.
Brailsford would not be drawn on specific cases but he did urge Cookson and the UCI to adopt a stronger stance, rather than hide behind “administrative laws”.
“If the UCI’s comments are that the structures aren’t in place to make a decision that can affect teams that then you need to get to a place where they are,” Brailsford told Cycling News. “And I don’t think that the UCI should hide behind administrative laws and that they might get into trouble with legal fees. That doesn’t wash with me at all.”
Earlier this month, Team Sky’s Chris Froome confirmed that regaining the Tour de France title is his No1 goal for 2015 despite, having previously appeared lukewarm to competing in the race, and Brailsford is relishing the challenge.
“Chris is a brilliant climber and a brilliant time trialist and I don’t think he has anything to be scared of,” added Brailsford, who also revealed that Bradley Wiggins is on course for the Paris-Roubaix in April before turning his attentions to the velodrome in preparation for the 2016 Olympics. “If he wins there he will cement his place as one of the true greats of the sport,” said Brailsford.
