LONDON, Feb 7: Tour de France organisers must include the Astana team in this year’s race despite the doping scandals of 2007, International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid said on Thursday.

“There is no reason why Astana should not be invited to the Tour de France,” McQuaid told Cycling Weekly magazine.

“I know that the Tour de France has been damaged by the actions of certain teams but this year, after the summit that was held in Paris in October and the announcement of the biological passport, we’ve increased the number of anti-doping tests from 1,000 to 8,000,” he added.

“That means the riders in the 18 ProTour teams are the most tested athletes in the world and so there is no justifiable ethical reason not to invite one team before another.”

Astana has changed its structure after the team were forced to pull out of last year’s Tour when Kazakh rider Alexander Vinokourov, who has since retired, tested positive for blood doping.—Reuters