US company will continue to provide bikes to Kazakh team even after departure of Tour champion
The Astana team has announced that Specialized Bicycles will continue to provide the bikes to the team in 2011, even though Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has left the team. The American company began supplying the team last year after striking up a personal deal with Contador; with the Spaniard moving to Saxo Bank-SunGard for 2011, which already rides Specialized bikes, there was speculation that the company would leave the team.
“This proof of confidence confirms the quality of Astana squad around its leader Alexandre Vinokourov and the great hope Czech Roman Kreuziger,” says the Astana team statement.
“This commitment is the result of close collaboration that began in 2010,” it continues, “and will continue with the same interest and motivation to achieve great goals of victories for 2011.”
As well as working with the Kazakh-registered ProTeam, Specialized will also be working at the grass roots of cycling in the former-Soviet republic.
“While renewing its contract with Astana,” says the team, “Specialized is also committed to equipping the junior and hopes of the team, and thus marks its interest in the development of cycling in Kazakhstan for years to come.”
With its continuing commitment to Astana, Specialized once again looks to be providing bikes to two ProTour teams, assuming its partnership with Saxo Bank-SunGard continues that is.
Contador is currently awaiting his fate after returning a positive sample for Clenbuterol at the tour de France; if he should be banned or, as he has threatened to, retires the deal with the Saxo Bank-SunGard team may well end in favour of Astana.
Specialized has also been rumoured to be in line to take over as bike sponsor to HTC-Highroad in 2011, after the American team’s current provider Scott has moved over to the new Australian “Pegasus” team.
Sponsoring one ProTeam is already expensive, involving the supply of well over one hundred road and time trial frames; sponsoring two is too much for all but the biggest companies, although Italian brand Pinarello and US marque Trek will both double up with teams next year. To back three seems hugely ambitious, even for Specialized, and so the status of the rumoured HTC deal and the previous-announced Saxo Bank/Contador contract remain to be clarified and verified as being in place.