Astana riders express confidence in Vinokourov despite sponsorship delay
Alexandre Vinokourov's public utterances over the years have typically been limited to a few, carefully-chosen words, and it can be assumed that every syllable of his comments on the delayed delivery of government funding to Astana Pro Team was given considerable forethought.
In an otherwise anodyne interview with the Kazakhstani publication Vesti.kz, Vinokourov took the opportunity to complain that the Astana team had not yet received funding from its government sponsors in 2018, adding that the situation was "critical" and that the team’s future was under threat.
The comments, published on Friday evening in Kazakhstan, made headlines across Europe by Saturday morning, not least because of the alarming suggestion that riders and staff were not being paid their salaries. Within the Astana camp, however, Vinokourov’s declarations did not appear to have given cause for immediate alarm.
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Speaking at the Abu Dhabi Tour, Dario Cataldo confirmed that he and his fellow riders had all been paid their salaries thus far in 2018. The Italian, now in his fourth year at Astana, added that he had full confidence that Vinokourov would eventually succeed in securing all of the promised funding from the team's Kazakhstani backers.
"We’ve been paid as normal this year, like always," Cataldo told Cyclingnews. "We don't know a lot about this matter either, but there's a lot of faith in Vinokourov. We know that he's working 100 per cent on this. In the past, he’s succeeded every time he's needed to get funding for the team, so we’re very confident that he'll do the same again.
"If Vino has served this notice to seek more funding, then it's something that he is doing as a precaution. He's not someone who will work at the last minute when funds have already expired, he is definitely working ahead of time to ensure we have the budget to continue. He knows what he’s doing and he’s definitely doing everything he can for the team before any difficulty arises."
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