MPCC loses another member in Orica – GreenEdge
The loss of Orica – GreenEdge leaves eight WorldTour teams as members of the group, which has stricter anti-doping rules than the UCI.
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MILAN (VN) — Australian WorldTour team Orica – GreenEdge has left the Movement for a Credible Cycling (MPCC) because it says the UCI’s rules cover enough.
Orica is one of several teams, along with LottoNL – Jumbo and Lampre – Merida, to leave the France-based voluntary organization recently.
“We would like to thank all the current and former members of the MPCC for the discussions and initiatives and for sincerely helping the sport move further in the right direction,” Orica’s general manager Shayne Bannan said in a press release.
“We fully support the initiatives that have now become an integrated part of the rules of the sport. Going onwards, we will be a strong supporter of seeing these and other initiatives being further developed by the official organizations in collaboration with all the other teams and stakeholders of cycling.”
The MPCC, without Orica, counts only eight of the 18 WorldTour teams as members: Ag2r La Mondiale, Cannondale, Dimension Data, FDJ, Giant – Alpecin, IAM Cycling, Katusha, and Lotto – Soudal. Astana, Etixx – Quick-Step, Lampre, LottoNL, Movistar, Sky, Tinkoff, and U.S.-registered teams BMC Racing and Trek-Segafredo are not members.
The movement existed for some time, but gained speed following the Lance Armstrong doping scandal of 2012. Several teams signed up to its stricter rules in order to beef up cycling’s stance against doping and controversial teams.
The UCI introduced several new rules more than a year ago that mimic those of the MPCC. For instance, it now defers teams with multiple doping cases to its disciplinary commission, which has the power to ban teams for up to 12 months. There is still no rule that deals with low cortisol levels, however.
LottoNL and Lampre left the MPCC after its riders were blocked from racing under the organization’s rules. American Chris Horner, then with Lampre, could not defend his Vuelta a España title in 2014 due to low cortisol levels. The same happened to LottoNL’s George Bennett regarding last year’s Giro d’Italia.
Astana raced Lars Boom in the Tour de France last year despite test results showing low cortisol levels. The MPCC expelled the team three months later.
Lampre manager Brent Copeland told VeloNews, “When you have too many organizations, it becomes complicated for everyone.”
UCI president Brian Cookson acknowledged the problem of overlapping rules and said the only rules teams should have to worry about are those of the UCI.