With just over a month until membership is voted upon in the next general meeting on February 7th, the number of teams accepted as provisional members of the MPCC is continuing to grow.
The latest two are the WorldTour Astana team plus the Continental Roubaix Lille Metropole setup. These join recent applicants MTN Qhubeka, the Pro Continental African team, as well as the Continental trio of Wallonie Bruxelles, Color Code Biowanze (both Belgian) and the 4072 Colombian squad.
According to MPCC chairman Roger Legeay, a total of 31 teams are seeking membership in 2013. These comprise seven WorldTour teams, thirteen Pro Continental squads and eleven Continental teams.
Of these, eleven have previously been approved for full membership. These are WorldTour teams AG2R La Mondiale, Garmin-Sharp, Lotto-Belisol, Francaise des Jeux and Argos Shimano, plus Bretagne Schuller, Cofidis, Europcar, Iam, Netapp and Sojasun.
At the end of November the association of international race organisers, the AIOCC, said that it would prioritise MPCC members when allocating wildcard invitations to events. This has undoubtedly encouraged some squads to join. However as long as the MPCC’s regulations are enforced, the anti-doping movement will have additional influence over the sport.
Teams signing up to the MPCC agree to additional anti-doping rules over and above the obligatory UCI regulations and the WADA Code. They are required to:
- No longer allow riders race after they have an initial positive test.
- Not sign up riders who have a suspension of more than six months [with the exception of whereabouts cases] for two years after the suspension.
- Not give corticoid injections without imposing a break from competition of eight days.
- Carry out internal procedures from the first positive case on a team.
- Undergo automatic suspension following several positive cases in a twelve month period.
In addition to the applications from numerous teams, the MPCC has also received the endorsement of several federations and groups. These are the national federations FFC (French cycling federation), RLVB (Belgian cycling federation), Cycling Ireland, Cycling Switzerland, Federation Royale du Maroc (Morocco) and the Union Européenne de Cyclisme, as well as the LNC National Cycling League (France) and the AC2000 French Association of Sports Groups.