Franco Pellizotti has been signed by Astana as a key rider for Vincenzo Nibali in his quest to win the 2014 Tour de France but the Italian won't line up for his first race in his new colours until after May 2. An Astana request for an exemption from an MPCC rule that prohibits a member team from signing a rider until two years after a doping ban, has been refused and the Kazakh team has accepted that their new signing will have to wait a few months before getting his debut.

In August, Astana announced that they had signed Franco Pellizotti as a key support rider for Vincenzo Nibali who hopes to add the Tour de France title to his Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana triumphs in 2014. At the time, the team was hopeful that the former Italian champion would race right from the beginning of the season but the team has now accepted that his debut will be delayed.

Astana has been plagued by several doping scandals in the past and to prove that the team is now on the right track, they have joined the Movement for a Credible Cycling (MPCC) which has been created to raise the bar in the fight against doping by imposing stricter rules for teams than the UCI. The Kazakh team was approved a member on the annual meeting last week and now has to obey to the rules of the movement which now has more than 50% of the WorldTour teams as members.

One of those rules is that a team cannot sign a rider until two years after they have served any doping that is longer than six months. Pellizotti served a two-year suspension for irregular values in his blood passport and was allowed to race again on May 2, 2012. He immediately joined the Androni team where he has raced in the past two seasons.

Astana had requested an exemption from the rules but according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, it was refused on last week's meeting. Manager Giuseppe Martinelli has decided to accept that Pellizotti will have to postpone his debut but claims that his focus on the Tour de France means that it is no disaster.

“We’ve decided to respect the MPCC rules and so Franco will only start racing on May 2,” he told Cyclingnews. “We’ve explained to him that it’s important for the team to respect the rules of the MPCC and so he’ll miss the early months of the season but ride the Giro d’Italia and then be at 100 per cent for the Tour de France. He’s a professional and knows how to prepare for big races and so it won’t be a problem. Lots of riders only start their season in late March. He’ll miss two months, not two years. It won’t be a problem.”

In theory, Pellizotti can only join the team on May 2 but Astana is trying to bend the rules by signing a contract that will allow him to wear Astana clothes and attend training camps in the early part of the season. It is unknown whether this will include any salary for Pellizotti.

Paradoxically, Gianni Savio, Pellizotti's current manager, was elected for the board of the MPCC on last week's meeting alongside Christophe Brandt (Color Code). His Androni team has been controversial as it has signed several doping offenders in the past but as a member of the MPCC, the team has decided to change its strategy.