UCI: Astana doping positives are extremely serious

The International Cycling Union is to speak to Astana to ensure the team is doing all it can to prevent doping after two riders returned positive tests.

The governing body of cycling says two "extremely serious" doping positives at Astana raises questions about management and ethics at the team that also has the Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali in its squad.

In a statement, the International Cycling Union said it will talk to Astana "to see whether we are satisfied that they are doing all they can to ensure their riders do not use performance enhancing drugs."

This comes after brothers Maxim and Valentin Iglinskiy tested positive for the banned performance-enhancer EPO.

The UCI called those failed tests "an extremely serious situation and one which raises questions about the management of the team and the ethics which are upheld within it."

Astana recently withdrew itself from the Tour of Beijing, the final WorldTour race of the year, to follow the suspension protocol of the Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC) whereby a team is automatically suspended for a week because of two doping infractions within a year.

Maxim Iglinskiy was one of Vincenzo Nibali's team-mates when the Italian won the showcase Tour in 2014.