Astana Team
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The Astana Team (UCI Team Code: AWT), formerly named Liberty Seguros-Würth Team, Würth Team and Astana-Würth Team, is a professional cycling team sponsored by the Astana group, a coalition of companies from Kazakhstan, named after its capital. The team had been sponsored by Liberty Seguros until May 25th, 2006, when it pulled primary sponsorship due to an extensive doping scandal involving the team's Director Sportif, Manolo Saiz. Up to July 3rd, 2006, the German assembly technology company Würth had acted as a co-sponsor. However, by the end of the 2006 Tour de France, in which Team Astana didn't compete, Würth announced that it would withdraw its sponsorship from the team now known as Team Astana.
They compete in the UCI ProTour circuit. The team's leader is Alexandre Vinokourov.
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[edit] History
[edit] ONCE
The team traces its lineage to the legendary Spanish team ONCE, sponsored by the Spanish lottery association for the blind. Manager Manolo Saiz, at the time one of the few cycling managers who was not a former rider himself, introduced new practices to the sport, starting from a more professional management style, closer supervision in coaching, equipment choice, and training. Manolo was known as a strong personality, and his antics are part of the cycling culture. In the 2003 Vuelta he was forbidden from riding in the race caravan after delivering a strong sequence of verbal insults at a motorcycle-mounted TV cameraman, resulting in live broadcast of his comments.
The ONCE team was most famously known for its association with French rider Laurent Jalabert and Swiss rider Alex Zülle in the 1990s, with both riders dominating the early spring classic cycle races such as Paris-Nice, La Flèche Wallonne and the Tour de Romandie, as well as the Vuelta a España. The team was also active in the Tour de France with multiple stage wins from Jalabert and domination in the team time trial when it was re-introduced to the Tour. The addition of individual time trial specialist Abraham Olano meant that the ONCE team always had a man to challenge for the GC of the Grand Tours.
ONCE's sponsorship was so successful that the brand penetration was 100% in Spain, meaning that every Spaniard surveyed knew what ONCE was and what they did. At the end of the 2003 season ONCE decided to cease its sponsorship of the team and Saiz obtained a new sponsor looking to expand its brand in Spain, Liberty Seguros. Most of the ONCE riders stayed on, including rising star Isidro Nozal, and veteran Igor González. Former USPS rider Roberto Heras also joined the team.
[edit] Liberty Seguros
In the 2005 season the team started with wins in the Tour Down Under courtesy of young riders Alberto Contador and Luis León Sánchez. Despite repeatedly resting its hopes on triple Vuelta winner Roberto Heras and podium placer Joseba Beloki, the team has not been able to mount a serious challenge in the Tour de France in the past years. In the 2005 edition of the Tour de France the team won the stage to Mende courtesy of Marcos Antonio Serrano, reminiscent of Laurent Jalabert's win in the 1992 Tour de France.
The team has announced that Kazakhstani cycling star Alexandre Vinokourov will be joining the team starting in 2006 for the next three seasons, intending to challenge for the top finish in the Tour de France. Fellow Kazakhstan riders Andrei Kashechkin, formerly of Crédit Agricole, and Sergei Yakovlev have also committed to joining the team.
On November 25, 2005, Roberto Heras was fired by the team after a urine sample from the 2005 Vuelta a España, which he had won, tested positive for the banned "blood-boosting" drug EPO. Heras was also stripped of what would have been a record-breaking fourth win, and banned for two years.
[edit] Sponsorship Changes and 2006 Season
On 23rd May 2006, Saiz was arrested in relation to a blood doping scandal.
In response to the arrest of Saiz and other incidents such as the Heras case, Liberty Seguros retracted their sponosorship of the team on 25th May 2006. They have promised to finance current obligations.
On June 2nd, 2006, the team has announced that they have acquired a new primary sponsor; named Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. The new sponsorship is headed by a consortium of 5 Kazakh companies. This deal provides that the Astana group will be the primary sponsor for at least the next three years, with an option to extend to six years. The team will now be known as Astana-Würth [1] [2].
On June 30th, 2006, Astana-Würth was excluded from the 2006 Tour de France after five of its riders were implicated in a doping scandal, leaving one of the Tour favorites, Alexandre Vinokourov, with three remaining teammates, which fell below the required minimum six riders for a team to start the Tour. As a consequence of this suspension, co-sponsor Würth stopped its commitment with immediate effect on July 3rd, 2006.
However, on July 26th, 2006, the five riders excluded from the Tour were cleared by Spanish officials of any wrongdoing. [3], and the team returned to competition at the Tour of Germany in August 2006, with Assan Bazayev winning the first stage for the team.
[edit] Honours
- 2006
- Assan Bazayev: Stage 1, Deutschland Tour
- Alexander Vinokourov: Stage 8, Vuelta a España
- Alexander Vinokourov: Stage 9, Vuelta a España
- Sérgio Paulinho: Stage 10, Vuelta a España
- Andrey Kashechkin: Stage 18, Vuelta a España
- Alexander Vinokourov: Stage 20 (ITT), Vuelta a España
- Alexander Vinokourov: Overall winner, Vuelta a España
