The MPCC now includes 19 Pro Continental teams out of a total of 22: the Irish team Aqua Blue Sport, created this year, has sent a formal membership request to the movement.
Only a few weeks after its very first race on the Herald Sun Tour and four days before its debuts on the European soil on the Classic de l’Ardèche and the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Aqua Blue Sport asks to join the MPCC. The motivations of the team manager Stephen Moore completely fit with our philosophy. The movement welcomes this membership request which have been provisionally accepted by the Board.
“Team Aqua Blue is committed to the continued development of clean and credible cycling, he explains. While we recognise the excellent work (and rules) done by WADA and the other various anti-doping organisations we also recognise that there are some deficiencies in the rules that are open to misinterpretation and abuse. In order to be governed by a stricter code and ensure our athletes are competing in the fairest possible environment we believe that all Teams should subscribe to an even stricter rule policy. We have carefully studied the internal rules of the MPCC and by joining the MPCC commit to the full implementation of these rules. We look forward working with the MPCC and its members”
The responsible physician for Aqua Blue Sport is Dr Alan Farrell. The team contains Lars Petter Nordhaug (GP de Montréal winner in 2012), Lasse Norman Hansen (2012 London Omnium olympic champion) and Stefan Denil (2014 Paris-Nice top-10 finisher). Several other riders of the roster have been part of World Tour teams in the past: 2016 British champion Adam Blythe, Matthew Brammeier, Andrew Fenn, Leigh Howard, Michel Kreder, Lawrence Warbasse and Calvin Watson.