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No Tour for Comunidad Valenciana, No Word Yet on Astana-Wurth

By Jessica | Permalink | No Comments | June 13th, 2006 | Trackback

The Tour de France peloton won’t be as big at the start in Strasbourg this year.

Tour de France organizing body ASO announced today that they have withdrawn the wildcard invitation of the Comunidad Valenciana team in the wake of the Spanish doping scandal, “Operacion Puerto.” Comunidad Valenciana’s assistant sporting director, Jose Ignacio Labarta, was under suspicion in the investigation, and despite having resigned his post two weeks ago, the ASO says they still are no longer invited.

Comunidad Valenciana was one of only two non-Pro teams to be invited to this year’s Tour, and there will be no substitutions in the roster. So this year’s Tour will be one team short of a full peloton.

Additionally, the ASO issued a stern warning to all remaining riders in the Tour, and hinting that although it wasn’t the ASO’s jurisdiction, Astaná-Würth could still face some kind of penalty. According to the ASO press release, “since they [Astaná-Würth] are in the system currently in place, unaffected by invitations, their participation is decided by the International Cycling Union. The Tour de France is awaiting the next decision of that committee regarding the presence in its league of a team that has one of its principal share-holders suspected in a doping scandal.”

The UCI is expected to release its decision about Astaná-Würth on Wednesday.

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