KZBlog

Despite their roster which includes Lance Armstrong, Contador and Leipheimer, Team Astana has been having financial issues. The team is sponsored by a number of state-owned companies including Air Astana, Kazakh Temir Zholi, KazMunaiGas and Kegoc. It also has a number of domestic and international sponsors including Trek, Nike and KazakhMys.

However, Nikolai Proskurin, Vice-President of the Cycling Federation of Kazakhstan says that Air Astana has officially withdrawn its sponsorship and other sponsors have not met their obligations. He believes that with a lack of funding, “The team will drop its name and will compete under the flag of another country.”

In the midst of the financial crisis, it may be that Kazakhstan companies feel they have more urgent uses for their funds than a cycling team of course. And as the population finds itself struggling to get by, there has been some backlash against wealthy state-owned companies. The enormous holding company Samruk-Kazyna, which owns many of Team Astana’s sponsors, has already cut their staff in half and reduced salaries by 30% all around. And employees of many other national companies have received notice that they may be fired or have their salaries lowered.

It would be sad to see the team sacrificed to the crisis, but there is a bright side. Armstrong is donating all his winnings to cancer research and he is not accepting any salary. So maybe they can convince him to stick around even if the rest of the team leaves.