Nibali criticises Cookson as Astana licence decision nears

Vincenzo Nibali has said that UCI president Brian Cookson should have better dialogue with riders after the handling of the Astana licence affair

Vincenzo Nibali before the 2015 Tour of Oman

(Image credit: Watson)

Tour de France champion, Vincenzo Nibali wasn't short of words for UCI president Brian Cookson when asked about team Astana's licence situation recently. With a decision on the team's licence by the Licence Commission expected as early as this week Nibali's Tour defence hangs in the balance.

Cycling's governing body requested that its licence commission strip the Kazakh team of its WorldTour status following the 2014 doping cases and an independent audit by the University of Lausanne. Following Nibali's Tour win, two riders from the team failed a test for EPO while three from the continental team with the same Astana name were caught using steroids.

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Gregor Brown

Gregor Brown is an experienced cycling journalist, based in Florence, Italy. He has covered races all over the world for over a decade - following the Giro, Tour de France, and every major race since 2006. His love of cycling began with freestyle and BMX, before the 1998 Tour de France led him to a deep appreciation of the road racing season.