Dubai: Kazakhstan’s Astana Pro Cycling Team is hoping to usher in a new era and retain its rightful spot as one of the best teams in the world of cycling.
Presided over by former champion and current general manager Aleksandre Vinokurov, the riders of the team were unveiled at a media meet on Sunday with the goal of claiming its place in the world of cycling.
The team was announced and on hand was the entire squad led by defending Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali along with Dutch rider Lars Boom, Italian Fabio Aru, Denmark’s Jakob Fugslang and the talented junior Alexey Lutsenko, among others.
“People may be wondering why are we here? The answer is easy. The image of the Astana Team is quite high and we are now moving into a new era where we want to start promoting ourselves in this part of the world as one of the best in cycling. After this we move on to the Qatar and Oman races before returning to Europe,” Vinokurov announced.
The scourge of doping followed the Kazakh team from its inception in 2007 when Mathias Kessler tested positive for testosterone. In the same year, on the eve of the Tour de France team leader Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping and as a result the entire Astana Team withdrew leading to the sacking of Vinokourov.
Subsequent years witnessed several high-profile riders – Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong among them – get caught and the status of the team suffered. In the second half of 2014, the Iglinskiy brothers – Valentin and Maxim – both tested positive and Astana had to withdraw from the Tour of Beijing.
Now with the worst behind them, Vinokorou hopes things will be different at Astana. “The brothers’ scandal [Iglinskiy] is still a mystery. We don’t know why they did it. It is frustrating. But we have won in the past and we will continue winning in the future as we have introduced doping regulations within the team. We are 200 per cent against doping and we are further committed to a clean sport,” Vinokourov stressed.
In the middle of December last year, the UCI licence committee granted Astana a conditional World Tour licence. The team has to get audited by the Institute of Sport Sciences of the University of Lausanne (ISSUL) and it has to adhere to new UCI internal operational requirements to be made mandatory for all teams starting 2017.
“We are committed to a clean sport and the start has been made by setting up laboratories in Kazakhstan along with Memorandum of Understanding with various bodies. In addition, we are educating young riders and at the same time we implement tough tests on the domestic circuit. Honestly, nobody wins in a doping scandal. At Astana, we have won honestly and we want to win honestly in the future as well,” Vinokourov said.
