Less than a year into his current two season contract with the Astana team, Giro d’Italia winner Vincenzo Nibali has inked a deal which will extend the current agreement by a further two years, running until the end of 2016.
The Kazakhstani squad announced the news today, bringing to an end recent speculation that such a deal was imminent. The Italian rider travelled to Kazakhstan this week and signed the contract today, with the agreement being hailed afterwards by general manager Alexander Vinokourov.
“We are very pleased to prolong our contract with Vincenzo Nibali today in Astana,” said the Olympic road race champion, who retired last year and now runs the squad. “We look forward to supporting his start in the Vuelta a Espana in August and a strong run at the World Championships in Firenze at the end of September.
“To have a great champion on Astana Pro Team ahead of Expo 2017 in Kazakhstan's capital will help to broadcast around the globe that our cycling federation has world-class talent to go with its world-class ambitions. Next year we will look to bring Vincenzo to the 2014 Tour de France.”
The Italian was third in the French race last year behind the Team Sky duo of Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, but voluntarily missed it this year in order to concentrate on winning his first Giro. The Italian dominated the race, and is now taking a break prior to building up for the second half of the season.
While Astana didn’t announce the value of the contract, it is rumoured that Nibali will earn close to €4 million per season.
He plus fellow team riders Valerio Agnoli, Paolo Tiralongo, Alessandro Vanotti, Dmitriy Gruzdev, and Andrey Zeits are all currently in the Kazakh capital of Astana. They are meeting fans plus the country’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev as part of the celebrations after the Giro win.
In Nibali’s absence, Jakob Fuglsang will lead the team in the Tour de France.