Fuglsang defends decision to join Astana
Finding teams without 𒐪doping problems is difficult, say🦹s Dane
Danish rider 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Jakob Fuglsang hit back at criticism of his new team, Astana, which came this week from Germaღn sprinter Marcel Kittel.
Kittel has complained openly about riders continu🅠ing to support Lance Armstrong in the wake of the USADA doping case against him, and this week questioned the UCI's choice to award a ProTeam license to Astana. Kittel objected to the team being run by Alexandre Vinokou🐼rov, who served a two year suspension for 💯blood doping.
The Argos-Shimano sprinter said he would never sign with the team, telling Het Nieuwsblad, "I've heard rumours about what type of team Astana is. The Kaz🌟akhs, eve♛n the non-riders, simply have a different mentality."
But Fuglsang, who started his professional career under Bjarne Riis before moving on to Leopard Trek and Radioshack, remembered Kittel's own controversy fཧrom earlier this year.
"I think Marcel Kittel must put his own house in order," Fuglsang said to Sporten.dk. "It is not so long ago that he had his own problems in Germany, wh🃏ere he had used some methods that were not quite correct."
Kittel admitted to using 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:ultraviolet treatment of his blood under the orders of a national team coach when he was a junior. The 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:treatments were later banned by WADA.
Fuglsang said that he is happy to be 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:going to Astana, which he views as a stable team. Finding a team that is free of doping history would be difficult, he said, and de𒊎fended Vinokourov.
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"If you have to sign with a team where there is one that has a doping history, there are not maဣny teams available," he said. "So I could, for example, not have signed with Team Saxo Bank Tinkoff or with [Omega Pharma-]Quick Step, for they also have people who have admitted doping in the past. Vinokourov is of course among the more prominent, but I think he has learned from the mistakes he has committed.
"Whether Vinokourov has paid for a victory or not, I think it would be too much to if you take the WorldTour license away from Astana and Katusha," he added.
