![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/screen-shot-2014-12-11-at-22-06-10.png?resize=555%2C241&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And the first rule of Twitter is that you should never tweet something you will live to regret. Not many people follow that rule but it is quite a good one, one that Brian Cookson OBE (Oh! Benevolent Entity?) was never taught, quite obviously.<\/p>\n
The decision to award Astana a World Tour license for 2015 has elicited widespread anger from the cycling world and is a decision that even the most hardened doping apologists will have trouble defending.<\/p>\n
After the Astana organization had five riders return positive tests for banned substances, the majority of cycling commentators believed it would be curtains for the Kazakh team, one that has had several other run-ins with the anti-doping authorities over the years.<\/p>\n
Surely, went the thinking, there\u2019s no way that a UCI run by Brian Cookson – the man who knocked Pat MacQuaid off his perch as president of the world governing body, the man who had promised to get tough on cheats \u2013 surely there\u2019d be no way he\u2019d allow Astana to keep its license?<\/p>\n
Well\u2026 yes, actually. There was a way. He just said yes.<\/p>\n
![\"BRIAN_COOKSON\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/brian_cookson.jpg?resize=770%2C578&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
It involved ignoring the anger and general fed-upness of cycling fans and the few outspokenly clean riders out there, it meant that he\u2019d have to face the opprobrium of the social media for a few days, and it would essentially cause anyone who gave a fig about doping to come to the conclusion that the UCI is not to be trusted as the overseer of this beautiful sport, but apparently that\u2019s all in a day\u2019s work for Brian Cookson OBE.<\/p>\n
As you know I am no fan of the UCI and I lost faith in them many years ago. I don\u2019t believe that the UCI has the best interests of the fans nor the vast majority of its members at heart. Yet even I was amazed by the news that Astana would not lose its license.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not alone. Amazingly, ProTour riders are speaking out \u2013 well one, at least.<\/p>\n
Peter Kennaugh of Sky tweeted:<\/p>\n
“Riders who were only ‘trained’ by Ferrari I mean come are you really that stupid ? And do you think everyone else is to? What a joke this sport can be! The clean riders of the peloton need to get together and push these cheats out enough is enough.”<\/p>\n
Kennaugh\u2019s tweet avoided calling out the UCI and Cookson which may be smart with regards to his job, but there\u2019s no hiding the fact that the decision is what prompted his tweet in the first place.<\/p>\n
Cookson for his part has said that Astana will be under probation, which must have Vinokourov quaking in his boots.<\/p>\n
Now, it could be that the UCI is fearful of banning Astana after the debacle of last season when they had their decision not to give a WorldTour license to Katusha overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.<\/p>\n
If that\u2019s the case they could at least have made the symbolic gesture. What this move has done is to strip, mangle and burn the last bare shreds of the UCI\u2019s credibility in the eyes of right-thinking fans.<\/p>\n
Early rumors that stated that Vinokourov was seen entering the UCI HQ with a carrier bag full of Kazakh bank notes have been quashed, but other rumors that the basement car park has been rigged with high explosives have yet to be either confirmed or denied.<\/p>\n
Allegedly.<\/p>\n
It could be a combination of things, the Katusha factor, the power and wealth of Astana (they are backed by a national government), and it could be, one online commentator suggested, to do with Vinokourov\u2019s contacts.<\/p>\n
In The Telegraph\u2019s online version, one reader wondered if the MPCC (Movement for Credible Cycling).<\/p>\n
Thehamst wrote:<\/p>\n
I suspect the head of the MPCC has had a major say so in this. Astana management and Roger Legeay go back a long way; all the way back to doping at Credit Agricole in 2008 actually. The same Roger Legeay banned for doping himself now in charge f the Movement For Credible Cycling – you really couldn’t make it up. <\/em><\/p>\n What is intriguing with regards to Astana not being denied a World Tour license is that another team, Europcar, was just denied one for 2015 (despite a fantastic Tour de France) on financial grounds.<\/p>\n \u201cRegarding Team Europcar,\u201d said Cookson, \u201cit is of course regrettable that the team has not been able to secure sufficient financial guarantees to remain in the UCI WorldTour, but I very much hope that they can continue as a Professional Continental Team.\u201d<\/p>\n So, why not find some \u2018financial irreguralities\u2019 with Astana? If you can\u2019t kick them out for bringing the already tarnished image of the sport further into the gutter, then make something up<\/em>.<\/p>\n Also interesting to note was an interview with Cookson just two days ago in which he stated that cycling was not the only sport with doping trouble, and trotted out the old line about how cycling was doing way more than those \u2018other sports\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI have always held the view that doping was not a practice solely restricted to the sport of cycling.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIn my view there are two groups of sports: There are those that have a doping problem and are actively trying to do something about it, and I would like to say that we are in a leading position on that.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAnd there are those sports that have a doping problem and are still pretty much in denial about it. And sooner or later they are going to have their problems.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Yawn.<\/p>\n To be honest Brian yes, we know other sports might have doping on a similar systematic scale as we have in cycling, but that argument doesn\u2019t wash. You\u2019re in charge of cycling, not table tennis.<\/p>\n However it is interesting to wonder what FIFA would do if say Barcelona suddenly got busted for a string of massive doping positives.<\/p>\n They\u2019d probably say it was an isolated case, that it didn\u2019t involve the management, was not systematic, that the players were very sorry, and that generally the sport was clean.<\/p>\n Sound familiar?<\/p>\n The truth of the matter, for me, is that the sport these guys at the top do is not the same sport I do. It is also not the same sport that 99.99% of cyclists around the world do.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t cheat. We don\u2019t think about doping ourselves. We don\u2019t accidentally fall on srynges of EPO or drink our own blood by the baggie-full.<\/p>\n What we do do however, is love this thing called cycling.<\/p>\n Against our own better sense, we still tune in for the Tour, the Giro, Roubaix and the World\u2019s. We still love the sight of the peloton coming through the clouds to summit on Ventoux, riders strewn about hither and tither, love seeing the fans – people like us \u2013 by the roadside, cheering them on.<\/p>\n We are the guardians of the history of this sport. We are the keepers, the rememberers, the people who make it live and breathe.<\/p>\n We buy the kits, we buy the books and the DVDs. We go to the races. We get up late at night when the family is all sleeping and pay our subscription to get 120 channels even though there\u2019s only one we want to watch.<\/p>\n And yet we are nothing. We are disrespected and barely acknowledged, unless it\u2019s to wring money from our pockets and to thrash the faith from our weary hearts.<\/p>\n This decision and the statements that have followed it from Cookson show that, again, and all too clearly.<\/p>\n Welcome to the world of the UCwedon’tknowf*ckingWhy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And the first rule of Twitter is that you should never tweet something you will live to regret. Not many people follow that rule but it is quite a good one, one that Brian Cookson OBE (Oh! Benevolent Entity?) was never taught, quite obviously. The decision to award Astana a World Tour license for 2015 has elicited widespread anger from the cycling world and is a decision that even the most hardened doping apologists will have trouble defending. After the Astana organization had five riders return positive tests for banned substances, the majority of cycling commentators believed it would be curtains for the Kazakh team, one that has had several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40955418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","wpupg_custom_link":[],"wpupg_custom_link_behaviour":[],"wpupg_custom_link_nofollow":[],"wpupg_custom_image":[],"wpupg_custom_image_id":[],"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[119818829],"tags":[1128683,115827,8155199,77823,805040,45234],"class_list":["post-5197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dopepunk","tag-astana","tag-ban","tag-cookson","tag-doping","tag-europcar","tag-license"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2OfoS-1lP","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5116,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2014\/11\/28\/groundhog-day-at-astana-hq-vinokourov-to-star-in-classic-comedy-remake\/","url_meta":{"origin":5197,"position":0},"title":"Groundhog Day at Astana HQ: Vinokourov to star in classic comedy remake!","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"11\u6708 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Bill Murray was brilliant in Groundhog Day, playing the cantankerous Phil, the weatherman who woke up every day in the same day, trapped in a town he hated, a fate that drove him to several failed suicide attempts. Playing Rita, the love interest, was Andie McDowell. Phil tried day after\u2026","rel":"","context":"dopepunk","block_context":{"text":"dopepunk","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/category\/dopepunk\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/groundhogday_blog.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/groundhogday_blog.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/groundhogday_blog.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4444,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2014\/07\/30\/uci-aso-need-to-ban-riis-and-vino-the-rest-from-le-tour\/","url_meta":{"origin":5197,"position":1},"title":"UCI & ASO need to ban Riis and Vino (& the rest) from Le Tour","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"7\u6708 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"this article originally appeared on The Roar \u00a0 Eurosport\u2019s coverage of the 2014 Tour de France had a section at the end of each stage that was entitled \u2018LeMond on Tour\u2019. This featured the combustible-looking, three-time Tour winner Greg LeMond chatting to a host of the Tour\u2019s personalities. One day\u2026","rel":"","context":"dopepunk","block_context":{"text":"dopepunk","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/category\/dopepunk\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/ntsZcWhNoZs\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5230,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2014\/12\/16\/things-that-make-you-go-hmmmmmmm\/","url_meta":{"origin":5197,"position":2},"title":"things that make you go hmmmmmmm…","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"12\u6708 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"can't kick Astana out cos apparently it's not in *the rules*. well, what great and auspicious rules we have. brilliant. have to kick out Europcar cos they are something like 5% short on the finances required for World Tour status, but a team that has a 500% increase in dopers\u2026","rel":"","context":"punkopinion","block_context":{"text":"punkopinion","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/category\/punkopinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/77d29a05-f5ee-402e-8e80-ce9622c47856-460x276.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3135,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2013\/12\/02\/encouraging-signs-to-now-from-cooksons-presidency-though-time-will-tell\/","url_meta":{"origin":5197,"position":3},"title":"Encouraging signs to now from Cookson’s presidency, though time will tell","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"12\u6708 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"By Shane Stokes This week\u2019s news that Brian Cookson will ensure that the UCI looks into the matter of a long-running appeal for compensation from the widow of a pro rider who died in a race in 2005 is encouraging, even if the final outcome is not yet certain. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"other contributors","block_context":{"text":"other contributors","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/category\/other-contributors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/brian-cookson-008.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2870,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2013\/10\/11\/the-times-they-are-a-changin-cookson-gets-to-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":5197,"position":4},"title":"the times, they are a-changin’ – Cookson gets to work","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"10\u6708 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing about hope again? For the second time in a week? Surely not! It must be the medication\u2026 And yet here we are, barely over two weeks into Brian Cookson\u2019s presidency and the rumblings of change are to be heard across the land. I know, it\u2019s too early yet to\u2026","rel":"","context":"other publications","block_context":{"text":"other publications","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/category\/other-publications\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"images","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/images1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2635,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2013\/08\/23\/mcquaif-down-for-the-count\/","url_meta":{"origin":5197,"position":5},"title":"McQuaid down for the count?","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"8\u6708 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"this article was written by cp and originally appeared in The Roar __________________ The drama and tension is supposed to belong on the road, not off it. Not in stuffy offices with strip lighting and Ikea desks, the characters wearing Hush Puppies and blue suits rather than Sidis and lycra.\u2026","rel":"","context":"dopepunk","block_context":{"text":"dopepunk","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/category\/dopepunk\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Lee Rodgers","author_link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/author\/crankpunk\/"},"rttpg_comment":15,"rttpg_category":"dopepunk<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"And the first rule of Twitter is that you should never tweet something you will live to regret. Not many people follow that rule but it is quite a good one, one that Brian Cookson OBE (Oh! Benevolent Entity?) was never taught, quite obviously. The decision to award Astana a World Tour license for 2015…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40955418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5197"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17291,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197\/revisions\/17291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"3297331706_a8b9b1c83a\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/3297331706_a8b9b1c83a.jpg?resize=400%2C250&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n