As reported the International Professional Cycling Teams (IPCT) voted during a meeting in Brussels on Friday to exclude Discovery Channel from their group. Active Bay, the company of Manolo Saiz and Pablo Anton, was also excluded during the meeting on Friday. A participant of the meeting told French newsagency AFP: "Discovery Channel didn't respect the rules." The participant continued by saying:"The ethical code is clear: a ProTour team should not sign a rider involved in the Puerto affair." Almost all members of the IPCT were present at the assembly, Caisse d'Epargne and Active Bay did not attend. The US Discovery Channel team was represented by an attorney.

Johan Bruyneel, team manager of Discovery Channel told Italian based website Tuttobiciweb.com on Saturday: "Now, we know we have enemies, but if someone decides to make this attitude a mission, they have to know that we, too, are ready to go all the way," Bruyneel said. "It seems to me that only the names of Ullrich and Basso have been soiled in this story. I wonder why nobody stood up against Lampre, Euskaltel or other teams that have riders that are in the same situation."  Bruyneel did not exclude the possibility of taking legal action against the exclusion of his team: "We'll read the meeting statement, then we'll decide how to protect us," Bruyneel said.

The decision of the IPCT will not affect Discovery Channel's participation in Pro-Tour races, as Discovery Channel have a Pro-Tour license. UCI Pro-Tour manager Alain Rumpf told cyclingnews.com on Saturday: "It has nothing to do with the ProTour." Rumpf continued by saying: "The IPCT is a company set up by a number of UCI ProTour teams to represent them and take care of their interests, but it has no official or regulatory relationship with the ProTour." Rumpf explained: "The Code of Conduct has been implemented by the teams separately from the UCI ProTour because it is not part of UCI regulations. That is their decision. Obviously, we support any efforts that are made by all the ProTour stakeholders to fight doping and safeguard the image of the sport."

Meanwhile, IPCT president and team manager of the Belgian Quickstep team, Patrick Lefevere is playing down the exclusion of Discovery Channel.  Lefevere admits that there were voices who wanted to exclude Discovery Channel during the IPCT meeting on Friday but he says nothing has been decided yet. Lefevere told Belgian daily sports sportwereld.be: "We aren't that far yet. We want to talk, but to be able to talk you have to be with two."

Asked what should happen with Basso, who's case is closed by CONI and the Italian Cycling federation, Lefevere said: The radicals demand his resignation, the moderate ask Discovery not to let him race until the investigation is over. I say: time will tell."

According to German sports newsagency SID, the decision about excluding Discovery Channel was postponed until the next IPCT meeting on Janury 11 after the attorney  of the Discovery Channel team threatened to take legal action for a civil court  against the decision. Discovery's attorney stated that one could not only exclude Discovery Channel because Lampre and Euskatel also have riders who are allegedly linked with the Fuentes scandal. Euskatel reacted by saying that according to the IPCT rules their case from 2005 is time-barred. Lampre wants to avoid an exclusion from the IPCT by sacking all riders who are linked with the Fuentes scandal immediatly. A strange developement as Lampre signed Giampaolo Caruso only last month, long after his name was mentioned in the Fuentes investigation.