Astana's head doctor has launched a staunch defence of the team's drug testing procedures after the International Cycling Union (UCI) requested their World Tour incense be revoked.

Cycling's world governing body confirmed on Friday that it had asked for Astana's 2015 World Tour incense to be withdrawn after conducting an audit into doping allegations that have blighted the Kazakhstani team.

The UCI conducted an investigation into Astana after Artur Fedoseyev, Ilya Davidenok, Viktor Okishev and Maxim and Valentin Iglinskiy were all found to have returned positive samples last year.

Originally, Astana, whose rider Vincenzo Nibali triumphed at the 2014 Tour de France, were handed a racing license last December, before the UCI handed the matter over to the organisation's Licence Commission following an enquiry.

Astana subsequently promised to clear their name, vowing to take the issue to the Court of Arbitration for Sport should they need to.

Now, the team's head doctor - Dr Joost De Maeseneer - has claimed Astana are at the forefront of drugs testing and labelled those who got caught cheating as "idiots".

"Bad things happen, and idiots exist all around the world, even in cycling - two idiots who violated the rules on their own got caught, and the system caught them - that means the system works," he said in a statement on Astana's official website.

"All together we are at the front in the fight against performance enhancing drugs in cycling.

"We are members of the MPCC, the Mouvement Pour Cyclisme Credibile - part of the French anti-doping professional program - to check for cortisone usage - we follow the no-needle policy, there are no outside supplements allowed, no outside trainers, we don't use sprays - we think this is a good idea, and we joined the MPCC in 2013 - not all the teams in the World Tour are members of the MPCC, we think this should not be the case.

"It adds to the overall number of blood tests we do in a year - I would say the top riders are tested approximately no less than 50 times per year - the top riders - Nibali at the tour was once tested four times in 24 hours - and he wore the yellow jersey for 18 days."