Astana (cycling team)

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For the cycling team known as Astana in the latter part of 2006, see ONCE cycling team.
Astana
Tour de Romandie 2008 team cars.jpg
Team information
UCI code AST
Based  Switzerland 2007
 Luxembourg 2008
 Kazakhstan 2009
Founded 2007
Discipline(s) Road
Status ProTour
Key personnel
General manager Johan Bruyneel
Contador2.jpg
Cycling current event.svg Current season

Astana (UCI team code: AST) is a professional road bicycle racing team sponsored by the Astana group, a coalition of state-owned companies from Kazakhstan and named after its capital city Astana. Astana attained UCI ProTeam status in its inaugural year, 2007. Following a major doping scandal involving Kazakh rider Alexander Vinokourov, team management was terminated and new management brought in for the 2008 season. The team was then managed by Johan Bruyneel, former team manager of U.S. Postal/Discovery Channel team. Although Astana under Bruyneel was very successful, with a lineup including Grand Tour winners Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong, as well as runners-up Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Klöden, the team was on the verge of financial collapse in May 2009. A battle for control of the team related to the return of Vinokourov for the 2009 Vuelta a Espana caused Bruyneel and at least fourteen of its riders to leave at the end of the 2009 season, most for Team RadioShack. Only four Spanish riders, including Contador, and most of the Kazakhs remained with the rebuilt team for 2010.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Demise of Liberty Seguros-Würth

Astana first became involved in sponsoring cycling during the 2006 season. The Liberty Seguros-Würth team was heavily implicated in the Operación Puerto doping case and the sponsors Liberty Mutual, and later Würth, withdrew their sponsorship of the team. Astana stepped in to sponsor the team, and during the second half of the season, Vinokourov won the Vuelta a España while riding for the renamed Team Astana, and his Kazakh teammate Andrey Kashechkin finished third.

[edit] New team

The new Astana management initially tried to buy the ProTour licence of the former Liberty Seguros-Würth team, held by Manolo Saiz. However, Saiz was reluctant to sell, so Astana applied for a licence in their own right. Initially, the new team was based in Switzerland under the holding company of Zeus Sarl and managed by former Tour de Suisse organiser Marc Biver. Vinokourov was the team's debut leader.

The UCI ProTour license commission first informed Astana that they would not be granted a ProTour License for the 2007 season. Following UCI's decision not to grant a ProTour license, the organizers of the three Grand Tours informed Astana Team that they would be included, regardless of ProTour license status. On December 20, 2006 the UCI License Commission relented and awarded Astana Team a 4-year ProTour license.

Other prominent new riders for the 2007 season included stage race specialists Andreas Klöden, Paolo Savoldelli and Andrey Kashechkin, as well as Matthias Kessler, Grégory Rast and Spanish climber Antonio Colom.

[edit] 2007

[edit] Doping Issues

In April, Matthias Kessler tested positive for testosterone following a surprise control in Charleroi. The former Team T-Mobile rider who had won a Tour de France stage in 2006, was fired in July, and would turn out to be the first of a number of Astana-riders to be tested positive. Later in July, yet another former T-Mobile cyclist, Italian Eddy Mazzoleni, left the team after allegations of doping usage. Mazzoleni, who had finished 3rd in the 2007 Giro d'Italia, was later suspended for two years for his alleged involvement in the Oil for Drugs doping case.

After a positive blood doping (transfusion) test following the winning time-trial by team-leader Alexander Vinokourov, organisers "invited" Team Astana's management to withdraw the entire team from the 2007 Tour de France; this invitation was immediately accepted.[1]

Following confirmation that Vinokourov's B-sample had also tested positive, the Astana Team announced that he had been sacked with immediate effect.[2] On August 1, fellow Kazakh Andrey Kashechkin tested positive for homologous blood doping following an out-of-competition test in Belek, Turkey. He was suspended and subsequently fired as well.

Additionally, the troubled team decided to suspend its activities during the month of August to decide about its future with new regulations.[3]

This was followed by the termination of José Antonio Redondo's contract after "failing to abide by team rules", making him the fifth rider of the team to leave during the 2007 season.

[edit] 2008

Team Astana Auto.jpg

Following the doping problems of 2007, the sponsors of Astana decided to replace Biver with Johan Bruyneel, the former directeur sportif of the defunct Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. Bruyneel had the mandate to start afresh with the team, so he hired a number of former Discovery riders including 2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador (who had ridden with Vinokourov on the old Liberty Seguros team) and third-place finisher Levi Leipheimer. Additionally, Bruyneel introduced the anti-doping system developed by Dr. Rasmus Damsgaard, Head of Information for Anti Doping Danmark (ADD). The anti-doping system was initially used by Team CSC starting in 2007.[4] The link between the Discovery Channel team and Astana was strengthened when Bruyneel signed a contract with Trek Bicycle Corporation to supply the team with bicycles and components, as they had done with Discovery Channel. Bruyneel also affirmed sponsorship with SRAM, the component maker.

Riding under a Luxembourgian license, the team also included other ex-Discovery Channel riders such as Tomas Vaitkus, Sergio Paulinho, Chechu Rubiera, Vladimir Gusev and Janez Brajkovic, as well as American Chris Horner. However, former Discovery Channel rider Savoldelli left the team.

On February 13, 2008, the organisers of the Tour de France announced that Astana would be barred from the 2008 Tour due to its links to Operación Puerto and involvement in the 2007 Tour doping scandals. This meant that Contador was unable to defend his Tour crown, because his contract does not have an "escape clause" that covered Astana's current situation.[5]

[edit] Results

The Astana team was also not invited to the 2008 Giro d'Italia. However, on May 3, one week before the start of the race, Giro organizers chose to extend a last-minute invitation to Astana.[6] Astana was able to field a team despite the short notice, and on 1 June, Alberto Contador won the Giro, finishing 11th on the final stage time trial to keep his pink jersey and take the overall victory. Contador also won the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, with teammate Levi Leipheimer finishing a close second. Thus, despite not competing in the Tour de France, Astana still won two Grand Tours in 2008 and achieved three podiums. Leipheimer also won a bronze medal in the time trial in the 2008 Olympics, just edging Contador, who finished fourth.

Among the other results achieved by the team were victories in several stage races: by Contador in the Vuelta al País Vasco and the Vuelta a Castilla y León, by Leipheimer in the Tour of California, by Klöden in the Tour de Romandie and by Russian Sergei Ivanov in the Tour de Wallonie. Various team members also achieved several other top-tier results, and Ivanov, Paulinho, Vaikus and two of the Kazakhs won their national championships.

Astana's strict anti-doping policy came to the forefront later in the year. On July 28 Astana fired Vladimir Gusev for showing "abnormal values" in an internal doping check. In a release from team director Johan Bruyneel it was indicated that although the results “do not indicate the use of banned substances, the team has therefore applied the contractual terms based on these physiological and biological abnormalities," dismissing Gusev "with immediate effect.” [7] On June 17, 2009, almost a year later, the Court of Arbitration in Sport ruled that Astana was wrong to fire Gusev based on Dr. Damsgaard's interpretation of blood values and ordered Astana to pay Gusev back wages, damages and legal costs.[8]

[edit] 2009

[edit] Return of Lance Armstrong

On 25 September, 2008, it was confirmed that seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong would leave retirement to ride for the team in the 2009 season. Along with Armstrong, Yaroslav Popovych, another former Discovery Channel rider, joined the ranks of Astana, which brought the number of former Discovery Channel riders on Astana to nine (Armstrong, Popovych, Contador, Leipheimer, Rubiera, Noval, Vaitkus, Paulinho and Brajkovič).

It was reported that Armstrong would share team leadership with current leader Contador, that he intended to participate in the Tour Down Under, the Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphine-Libere and the Tour de France, and that he would receive no salary or bonuses, instead directing his attention to raising awareness for cancer research.[9][10]

Along with Armstrong and Popovych, Astana also signed Jesus Hernandez, who had joined the former Liberty Seguros team in 2004 when Alberto Contador was one of the riders there, and Basque rider Haimar Zubeldia. Contador expressed his support for the return of Vinokourov from his two-year doping suspension but seemed less enthusiastic about Armstrong's return.[11]

Armstrong was part of the team that participated in the season's first ProTour race, the 2009 Tour Down Under. The team's first victory of the season was the 6th stage, followed by the general classification, of the Tour of California by Levi Leipheimer. In the same week, Alberto Contador won a stage and the classification of the Volta ao Algarve, and subsequently two stages in the Paris-Nice race.

Armstrong's participation in the Tour was cast into doubt in late March, after he suffered a broken collarbone in the Vuelta a Castilla y León that required surgical repair. However, Armstrong was able to recover in time to ride in the 2009 Giro d'Italia.

[edit] Financial crisis

On 6 May 2009 Astana admitted that it had failed to pay its riders amid the financial crisis in Kazakhstan, but a team spokesman said that this was only a delay, that the team was not in danger of folding, and that the team would compete in the 2009 Giro d'Italia as planned.[12] On 7 May Armstrong, riding for Astana on an unpaid basis, expressed his sympathy for employees waiting for their wages only days before the start of the Giro d'Italia.[13] He also said that if the financial crisis was not resolved, the team's license should be turned over to Bruyneel, which he said was the "most logical solution."[14]

Organizationally, Astana has an unusual structure. Although the Kazakh team holds the UCI license and pays the salaries, the individual rider contracts and equipment leases are held by Bruyneel's Luxembourg-based Olympus SARL, so the team could continue with merely a license transfer. UCI President Pat McQuaid is planning a visit to Astana during the Giro to discuss the team's future.[15] According to Armstrong: "I don't have any concrete answers but I suspect we can find some funding that would get us from June to the end of the year."[13] On May 11, the UCI set a deadline for resolving Astana's financial situation of May 31, the last day of the Giro. If the team has not met its financial obligations by that date, it will be suspended by the UCI. Bruyneel noted that at least the team would be able to finish the Giro under its current banner.[16]

During stage 7 of the Giro, eight of the nine Astana riders, including Armstrong, rode in jerseys with the non-paying sponsors' names nearly faded out in protest over the team's unpaid salaries and remained in such jerseys for the rest of the Giro. The only rider not to participate was Andrey Zeits from Kazakhstan.[17] According to Bruyneel, the names of paying sponsors, such as Trek and KazMunayGas, were not blanked out, and the team would continue to "race with these shirts until everything, emphasis on everything, is fixed," as "the riders have only received two months of salary in 2009."[18] On 19 May, Bruyneel announced that the sponsors have paid part of the past-due wages since the start of the protest "but the major part is still missing."[19] On 3 June the Astana team gave financial guarantees to cycling's governing body which will allow them to compete in the 2009 Tour de France in July,[20] and later that month declared their financial problems to be resolved and the funds secure at least to the end of the season.[21]

[edit] Vinokourov versus Bruyneel

During these financial problems, it was rumored that three of the former Discovery Channel riders on the team - team leader Contador and his domestiques Noval and Paulinho - would join Garmin-Slipstream for the Tour de France if Armstrong were to take over the Astana team.[22] These problems seemed to be resolved, at least for the remainder of 2009, when the team's funding was resolved. However, the funding battle may have been merely a skirmish related to the underlying issue: control of the Astana team after the expiration of the two-year doping suspension of Alexander Vinokourov on July 24, 2009.

On 2 July, Vinokourov stated that he would return to Astana, which he noted was "created for me and thanks to my efforts", when his suspension ended, and that he would ride for Astana in the 2009 Vuelta a Espana. He stated that he expected to reach agreement with Bruyneel about his return within the week, but that "if Bruyneel does not want me, it will be Bruyneel who is leaving the team."[23] The next day, the French newspaper L'Equipe reported that the Kazakh Cycling Federation planned to fire Bruyneel, Armstrong, Leipheimer and many of the other riders and rebuild the team in the model of the old Liberty Seguros team, which was predominantly Spanish. The paper quoted the vice-president of the Kazakh federation as saying, "[Contador] will be our sole leader for years to come [and] will be able to pick out the riders he wants to ride with him. In our mind, the team will be composed of Spanish and Kazakh riders, including Alexander Vinokourov."[24]

On 21 July, with Contador, Armstrong and Klöden holding three of the top four places in the Tour de France, Bruyneel told Belgian channel VRT that Astana as currently constituted was "finished" and that he would be leaving the team, as Vinokourov and the Kazakh federation had discussed, at the end of the season.[25] Despite the comments by Vinokourov and the Kazakhstan federation, Bruyneel and Vinokourov did not reach an agreement regarding Vinokourov's return to Astana for 2009, and the team submitted a preliminary roster to the 2009 Vuelta a Espana listing him only as a reserve.[26] Finally, on 24 August, Astana announced that an agreement had been reached between Vinokourov and Bruyneel and that Vinokourov would rejoin the team for the start of the Vuelta.[27] The next day, Armstrong announced that Bruyneel would take over Team RadioShack in 2010.[28]

[edit] 2010

The immediate result of Vinokourov's return and Bruyneel's departure was a mass exodus from Astana. Although Bruyneel still had a year to run on his contract, Astana permitted his departure in return for him not blocking Vinokourov's return. Contador also has a year on his contract, and Astana refused to permit his departure. However, much of the rest of the team departed for RadioShack, including Armstrong, Klöden, Leipheimer, Zubeldia, Horner, Brajkovič, Popovych, Paulinho, Vaitkus, Rast, Rubiera and Muravyev (the only Kazakh to depart), which meant that eight of the nine members of the winning Astana team at the 2009 Tour de France moved to RadioShack. Additionally, Schär and Morabito joined BMC Racing Team. All that remained of Astana was four Spanish riders (Contador, Noval, Navarro and Hernández) and the Kazakhs (except Muravyev). Since then, the team has signed four more Spanish riders, including 2006 Tour champion Óscar Pereiro,[29] to support Contador.

[edit] Major achievements

[edit] 2007

National champions:

[edit] 2008

Stage wins:

National champions:

[edit] 2009

Stage wins:

National champions:

[edit] 2009 team roster

As of 25 January 2009.[30]

Rider Date of Birth
 Lance Armstrong (USA) September 18, 1971 (1971-09-18) (age 38)
 Assan Bazayev (KAZ) February 22, 1981 (1981-02-22) (age 28)
 Janez Brajkovič (SLO) December 18, 1983 (1983-12-18) (age 26)
 Alberto Contador (ESP) December 6, 1982 (1982-12-06) (age 27)
 Valeriy Dmitriyev (KAZ) October 10, 1984 (1984-10-10) (age 25)
 Alexsandr Dyachenko (KAZ) October 17, 1983 (1983-10-17) (age 26)
 Jesús Hernández (ESP) September 28, 1981 (1981-09-28) (age 28)
 Chris Horner (USA) October 23, 1971 (1971-10-23) (age 38)
 Maxim Iglinskiy (KAZ) April 18, 1981 (1981-04-18) (age 28)
 Roman Kireyev (KAZ) February 14, 1987 (1987-02-14) (age 22)
 Andreas Klöden (GER) June 22, 1975 (1975-06-22) (age 34)
 Berik Kupeshov (KAZ) January 30, 1987 (1987-01-30) (age 22)
 Levi Leipheimer (USA) October 24, 1973 (1973-10-24) (age 36)
 Steve Morabito (SUI) January 30, 1983 (1983-01-30) (age 26)
Rider Date of Birth
 Dmitriy Muravyev (KAZ) February 11, 1979 (1979-02-11) (age 30)
 Daniel Navarro (ESP) July 8, 1983 (1983-07-08) (age 26)
 Benjamín Noval (ESP) January 23, 1979 (1979-01-23) (age 30)
 Sérgio Paulinho (POR) March 26, 1980 (1980-03-26) (age 29)
 Yaroslav Popovych (UKR) January 4, 1980 (1980-01-04) (age 29)
 Bolat Raimbekov (KAZ) December 25, 1986 (1986-12-25) (age 23)
 Grégory Rast (SUI) January 17, 1980 (1980-01-17) (age 29)
 Sergey Renev (KAZ) January 3, 1985 (1985-01-03) (age 24)
 José Luis Rubiera (ESP) January 27, 1973 (1973-01-27) (age 36)
 Michael Schär (SUI) September 29, 1986 (1986-09-29) (age 23)
 Tomas Vaitkus (LTU) February 4, 1982 (1982-02-04) (age 27)
 Alexander Vinokourov (KAZ) September 16, 1973 (1973-09-16) (age 36)
 Andrey Zeits (KAZ) December 14, 1986 (1986-12-14) (age 23)
 Haimar Zubeldia (ESP) April 1, 1977 (1977-04-01) (age 32)

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Cycling News". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/6914301.stm. Retrieved 2007-07-26. 
  2. ^ "Vinokourov fired by Astana team". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/6922680.stm. Retrieved 2007-07-30. 
  3. ^ "Astana Cycling Team suspends its activities for one month". team-astana.eu. http://www.team-astana.eu/e/actualite.php?id=644. Retrieved 2007-07-31. 
  4. ^ Bruyneel to head new-look Astana team in 2008 - Cycling - Yahoo! Sports
  5. ^ Associated Press (2008-02-13). "Tour de France organizers exclude Astana team; Alberto Contador may not defend title". ESPN.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=cycling&id=3243633. Retrieved 2008-02-15. 
  6. ^ AFP (2008-05-04). "Astana Will Race The Giro". Bicycling. http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6610,s-3-10-17106-1,00.html. Retrieved 2009-05-11. 
  7. ^ VeloNews | Astana sacks Gusev over 'abnormal values' found during internal checks | The Journal of Competitive Cycling
  8. ^ Jean-François Quénet (2009-06-17). "Gusev back in action after CAS decision". cyclingnews.com. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gusev-back-in-action-after-cas-decision. Retrieved 2009-07-07. 
  9. ^ "Route Summary Stage 11". La Vuelta '08. 2008-09-10. http://www.lavuelta.com/08/ingles/online/peli11.html?e=11. Retrieved 2008-09-12. "Astana team-manager Johan Bruyneel has admitted that he has spoken with Lance Armstrong and has stated that he can't see the North American riding for any team other than Astana." 
  10. ^ Armstrong joins Kazakhstan's team - RTHK
  11. ^ Associated Press (2008-10-17). "Astana's Contador cautious in welcoming Armstrong back from retirement". ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=3649470. Retrieved 2009-07-03. 
  12. ^ "Lance Armstrong's Astana team fails to pay riders amid financial crisis". The Guardian. 2009-05-06. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/may/06/lance-armstrong-cycling-astana. Retrieved 2009-05-06. 
  13. ^ a b "Armstrong ponders Astana takeover". BBC Sport. 2009-05-07. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/8037598.stm. Retrieved 2009-05-07. 
  14. ^ "Armstrong: Bruyneel could buy Astana". Eurosport. 2009-05-08. http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/08052009/58/armstrong-bruyneel-buy-astana.html. Retrieved 2009-05-10. 
  15. ^ "UCI monitoring Astana's financial situation". CNN. 2009-05-07. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/05/07/cycling.astana/. Retrieved 2009-05-10. 
  16. ^ Associated Press (2009-05-11). "UCI gives Armstrong's Astana team May 31 deadline". Casper Star-Tribune. http://www.trib.com/articles/2009/05/11/ap/sports/d9847sr80.txt. Retrieved 2009-05-11. 
  17. ^ Reuters (2009-05-15). "Astana riders blank out sponsors' names in protest". Universal Sports. http://www.universalsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=23000&ATCLID=3738641. Retrieved 2009-05-15. 
  18. ^ "Team Astana makes a statement". Astana Cycling Team. 2009-05-15. http://www.astana-cyclingteam.com/race_recaps/giro072009.html. 
  19. ^ Reuters (2009-05-20). "Astana owners cough up part of riders' owed wages". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/feedarticle/8516712. Retrieved 2009-05-20. 
  20. ^ "Armstrong team to continue racing". BBC Sport. 2009-06-03. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/8082188.stm. Retrieved 2009-06-03. 
  21. ^ [1]
  22. ^ Shane Stokes (2009-06-24). "Vaughters downplays Contador rumors". cyclingnews.com. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vaughters-downplays-contador-rumours. Retrieved 2009-07-03. 
  23. ^ "'Vino' says he will be on Astana ... or heads will roll". VeloNews.com. 2009-07-02. http://tour-de-france.velonews.com/article/94137/vino--says-he-will-be-on-astana--or-heads-will-roll. 
  24. ^ Susan Westemeyer (2009-07-03). "Kazakh coup to oust Armstrong and Bruyneel from Team Astana?". cyclingnews.com. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/kazakh-coup-to-oust-armstrong-and-bruyneel-from-team-astana. Retrieved 2009-07-04. 
  25. ^ "Bruyneel says it's time to quit Astana". Special Broadcasting Service. 2009-07-22. http://tdf.sbs.com.au/tdf2009/news/article/15881/Bruyneel-says-it-s-time-to-quit-Astana. Retrieved 2009-07-21. 
  26. ^ Richard Tyler (2009-08-14). "Preliminary Vuelta a España startlist announced". cyclingnews.com. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/preliminary-vuelta-a-espana-startlist-announced. Retrieved 2009-08-18. 
  27. ^ cyclingnews.com (2009-08-24). "Vinokourov to head to the Tour of Spain with Astana". http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vinokourov-to-head-to-the-tour-of-spain-with-astana. 
  28. ^ Fergal O'Brien (2009-08-25). "Armstrong Says Bruyneel to Join New Team, Landis a Possibility". Bloomberg.com. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=aapVgx7rq1NI. 
  29. ^ Associated Press, "Oscar Pereiro agrees deal to join Astana team for one year", The Guardian, Dec. 9, 2009. Retrieved 12-24-2009.
  30. ^ "Astana (AST) - KAZ". uciprotour.com. UCI. http://www.uciprotour.com/Modules/SUCI/TEAMS/TeamDetails.asp?id=MTAz&RefDate=01.01.2009&MenuId=MTU2MTU&BackLink=%2Ftemplates%2FUCI%2FUCI2%2Flayout.asp%3FMenuId%3DMTU2MTU. Retrieved 2009-01-25. 

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Astana seasons
2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010
v • d • e
Teams UCI ProTour (2009)
See also
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astana_(cycling_team)"