Astana Qazaqstan Team set to create new continental development team
The team is going to be created under the same juridical structure as the main UCI WorldTour Astana Qazaqstan Team and in the upcoming season of 2022 it will be aimed to the most prestigious Under 23 as well as Elite races all around Europe.
«Cycling is becoming younger, and it requires a better and profounder work with the young talented riders. This is the reason that many teams already have their own development teams. I was dreaming about Astana development team for a long time and now we have an opportunity to create a new Under 23 team inside our structure and with support of Wilier Triestina. I think this is a big and important step ahead in our global development as a national cycling project and I hope we will succeed. We are working on receiving the UCI Continental Team license to have a possibility to build up a good calendar for the riders which would include many important youth races around Europe. So far, we are thinking about ten riders, the priority will be given to young riders from Kazakhstan, but we are planning to invite a few talented riders from other countries to this team. Thus, we will get a chance to create a strong team where the riders will have a possibility to gain experience and learn from each other to step into the level of our main team», said Alexandr Vinokurov, General manager of Astana Qazaqstan Team.
«Our Federation is welcoming and supporting the creation of this development team under the structure of Astana Qazaqstan Team, the main cycling team of Kazakhstan. Initially Astana Project was created to give an impetus to domestic youth cycling and with the new development team we can build up a very good structure with the young riders growing up through a strong calendar to the WorldTour level», said Nurlan Smagulov, President of Kazakhstan Cycling Federation.