Dubai: The President of the Cycling Federation of Kazakhstan (CFK) is confident cycling will be among the top sports in the country in the near future.
“The Astana Pro Cycling Team has played a key role in popularizing cycling in Kazakhstan. At the moment we are one of the leading cycling teams in the world and our goal is to be number one in cycling this year. The success of Astana Team and the popularity of cycling in Kazakhstan go hand in hand and we want to improve on this,” Darkhan Kaletayev, President, CFK told media.
Kaletayev, who was vice president for the past few years, replaced Kairat Kelimbetov as CFK president following elections held last week. And one of his tasks is to take cycling on par with other sports played in Kazakhstan. “We have plans to develop cycling in Kazakhstan. I have the experience to grow this sport especially at the amateur levels with the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in mind. We are also working on the women’s cycling team and on developing and improving several high-level events including the Tour of Almaty,” Kaletayev said.
“The message we want to give the world is that Astana is a new team from 2015 and there will be no more doping scandals repeated by us,” he vowed.
