Astana Qazaqstan Team announces deal with XDS Carbon-Tech
The term is sometimes a little misleading: rest day. Race break would perhaps be better. After all, hardly any of the pros completely abstained from cycling on Monday. A relaxed two-hour ride is probably a good average in the peloton. While the athletes were taking it easy on their legs, big deals were being struck behind the scenes in some places. At Astana Qazaqstan Team, for example. Alexandr Vinokourov's team announced a deal on Monday that was finalised during the Tour de France 2024 and will see the team become a major financial power in cycling in the coming years. "We will make sure that the team gets enough budget and the best technical support," announced Yancong Tan, CEO of the Chinese company XDS Carbon-Tech.
"Significant changes" will take place at Astana from next season, said Vinokourov, whose job as team manager will not be affected. As XDS builds its own bikes, the days of Willier, a racing bike manufacturer from Italy, are probably numbered for the Kazakhs. A change of licence to China, which would then have a team in the World Tour for the first time in history, is probably up for discussion.
What's next for the Astana Qazqastan Team?
From a purely sporting point of view, the rumour mill sees Kaden Groves, whose contract with Alpecin-Deceuninck is coming to an end, as the successor to Mark Cavendish, who is set to switch to a consultancy role after the end of his career. However, with a budget estimated at 50 million euros or more, this is unlikely to be the only change to the squad.
