Astana out of the Vuelta

Vuelta a España organizer Unipublic has revoked the invitation to team Astana for the final Grand Tour of this year. Unipublic announced that following the doping cases of Matthias Kessler for testosterone and Alexander Vinokourov and Andrey Kashechkin for blood doping it decided that Astana would not be welcome at the start.

Currently Astana is taking the month off, required under UCI's Code of Ethics, following three positive test cases in a 24 month period. This is another blow to the team that may be on the brink.

Astana responded in a press release that they deeply regretted the decision. The team will cancel the planned training camp with immediate effect.