October 28, 2006 – The UCI has acknowledged the decision of the Licences Commission, which today refused the CUPT’s request to withdraw the company Active Bay’s licence (Active Bay runs the Astana team, which formerly was Astana-Wurth, and before that was Liberty Seguros).

The UCI regrets the circumstances which have obliged the commission to take this decision, which is undoubtedly correct in legal terms, but which is most likely due to the lack of information from the Spanish authorities and the extremely confusing state of affairs with operation «Puerto».

The UCI is extremely concerned by this situation and will take all the measures that it deems necessary to protect the interests of cycling as a whole, in particular as regards disciplinary procedures against the individuals concerned.

The UCI also wishes to stress, that for all teams, the upholding of the licence each year is subject to registration with the CUPT, based on the examination of its financial file on 20 November.