Setting themselves up for a clash with the UCI, the Spanish cycling federation has decided against sanctioning Iban Mayo despite a positive result on his “B” sample from this year’s Tour de France.

The federation had already made the decision to close Mayo’s case after a laboratory in Ghent, Belgium found the “B” sample inconclusive.

Eugenio Bermudez, the federation’s secretary told the AP

It’s not voluntary but I expect (a confrontation) to come. If there was another manner of doing this we would prefer to do it that way but there doesn’t seem to be any other route out of this.

This decision on the part of the Spanish federation will only serve to support accusations from the time of Operation Puerto that they are displaying favoritism for their riders and looking the other way.