Team Astana is seeking permission from the UCI for it to increase the number of permitted stagiaire riders from three to four, thus enabling more young riders to compete on trial with the squad.
Manager Giuseppe Martinelli explained the reasoning. “Kazakhstan is a very big country with numerous riders, yet the country only has one elite squad,” he told Biciciclismo. “We therefore hope that the UCI will allow the signing of four riders in the place of three. For the moment, we haven’t had any response.”
Astana has already said that it plans to set up a smaller secondary team next season, acting as a feeder squad for the Elite setup.
The riders that it wants as stagiaires for the latter are Alexandr Shushemoin, Nazar Jumabekov, Dmitriy Gruzdev and Ruslan Tleybaev.
Alexandre Vinokourov is expected to take up a senior management role next season. He crashed out of this year’s Tour de France with a broken femur, and subsequently confirmed his intention to retire. “I will continue to ride my bike, but only to keep fit,” he told French television last month. “I hope to find a new role at the Astana team.”
The squad was set up in the wake of Operacion Puerto, being created as a device to support Vinokourov after Liberty Seguros cut its sponsorship of his-then team.