Alexander Kristoff (Joker-Bianchi) would finish the stage in second place (Image credit: splitsecondimages.co.uk)
BMC Racing rider Alexander Kristoff has been pulled out of his team's line-up for the Tour Down Under because he has not undergone the minimum of three tests required by the UCI's biological passport. Signed from the continental Joker-Bianchi team at the end of the last season, the 22-year-old Norwegian is now likely to make his debut for BMC at the Tour of Qatar.
According to UCI regulations regarding participation in ProTour events such as the Tour Down Under, "riders from UCI ProTour teams and the UCI's Professional Continental teams must have provided information on their exact whereabouts and been subject to at least three tests of their blood parameters taken in conformity with the protocols of the UCI's blood passport. The three tests must have been taken over a minimum period of six weeks."
Kristoff himself said that he was not at fault. "They've not taken any blood yet and there is nothing I can do to get them to do so," he told Danish website Feltet.dk. "I don't know when the UCI will be doing the tests but I hope they're done in time for me to ride the spring Classics. I really want to ride the Tour of Flanders more than anything."
Peter Cossins has written about professional cycling since 1993 and is a contributing editor to Procycling. He is the author of The Monuments: The Grit and the Glory of Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races (Bloomsbury, March 2014) and has translated Christophe Bassons' autobiography, A Clean Break (Bloomsbury, July 2014).
