The Astana team of Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali appears set to lose its license to compete this year, at the request of the UCI. An audit by the Institute of Sport Sciences at the University of Lausanne (ISSUL) into Astana's management of anti-doping measures found ''a big difference'' between the team's practices, and the structures it committed to in order to combat doping, world cycling's governing body announced on Friday. The UCI said there were ''compelling grounds'' to refer the matter to the licensing commission, and request the Kazakhstan government-backed Astana be stripped of its license. Astana was awarded a license in December, but only on probation after five senior and development squad riders, including brothers Maxim and Valentin Iglinskiy, were caught doping with EPO and steroids since August. More...