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Facing ban, Kash' still seeks team

By Agence France Presse
Published: Jan. 11, 2008

Disgraced Kazakh cyclist Andrey Kashechkin has pleaded for a team to sign him despite facing a ban over a positive test for blood doping following the Tour de France.

Kashechkin was sacked from the drug-tainted Astana team after he tested positive for homologous blood doping at an out-of-competition control in Turkey last August.

Although he has contested the validity of that test, Kashechkin is facing a ban from the sport, a fate that seems likely to befall his former teammate, compatriot Alexander Vinokourov, after he too tested positive for blood doping.

Since Vinokourov's positive test during the Tour de France, which led to the expulsion of the entire Astana team, he has retired from cycling.

Kashechkin, meanwhile, continues to hit out at the authorities over his positive test, and said through his lawyer, Luc Misson, that he is training in anticipation of joining a new team.

"He would be ready to accept a contract with a new team even with the stipulation that it (contract) could be suspended or canceled if he were to be disciplined," said Misson. “He continues to train, and right now he is in great shape."

Misson, meanwhile, criticized the UCI, saying it has failed to send crucial documents relating to the case to the Kazakh cycling federation.

"The UCI hasn't respected its own rules," said the Belgian lawyer.