It is maybe logical that Alexander Vinokourov is at present best-known because the workforce supervisor of Astana Qazaqstan, given he has now held that function, barring a short intermission in 2021, for over a decade.
However in his time as a professional, the 49-year-old Kazakh hit the headlines himself for good causes, as his nation’s first ever Grand Tour winner, Monument champion, and Olympic gold medallist, but additionally due to a optimistic take a look at for blood doping in 2007.
Born within the former USSR, after being educated in a sports activities faculty within the Kazakh capital, Almaty, Vinokourov’s transfer to France as an beginner represented a pivotal second in his profession. Primarily based in Saint Etienne, his success introduced him to the eye of Vincent Lavenu, the longstanding supervisor of the On line casino workforce, later to grow to be higher identified when the squad was rebranded as AG2R.
Vinokourov flourished quick and successful the Critérium du Dauphiné in his second 12 months as a professional in 1999 – as probability would have it, forward of one other future WorldTour workforce supervisor, Jonathan Vaughters – introduced him to the eye of the high-flying Telekom squad.
Signed by the highest German outfit in 2000, he shortly rewarded them with a breakaway stage win at that 12 months’s Vuelta a España and a silver medal within the Sydney Olympic Video games, sandwiched between German teammates Jan Ullrich, who scored gold, and Andreas Klöden, bronze.
His most notable season with the highest German squad, 2003, first stood out because of a second total victory in Paris-Good, claimed in tragic circumstances after the dying of shut buddy and fellow Kazakh rider Andre Kivilev through the hint. However Telekom, then rebranded as T-Cellular, supplied Vinokourov alternatives to shine within the Tour de France as nicely, and he took them with each palms.
2003 additionally noticed ‘Vino’ declare his nation’s first-ever podium in biking’s largest Grand Tour in addition to a dramatic stage win at Hole. Then in 2005, having claimed his first of two editions of Liège-Bastogne-Liège by outsprinting fellow breakaway rider Jens Voigt, he rounded off his time at T-Cellular with an epic Tour de France stage victory on the Champs Elysées, ripping up the standard script of bunch dash finishes on Paris’ most well-known boulevard.
Nevertheless, the darker aspect of Vinokourov’s success story was quickly to be revealed, with the primary stormclouds gathering when Liberty Seguros, the workforce he signed for after T-Cellular, was itself closely embroiled within the huge anti-doping investigation, Operación Puerto, in Spain.
Regardless of not being straight implicated or named, the arrest of Liberty Seguros workforce supervisor Manolo Saiz and subsequent exclusion of the Spanish squad from the 2006 Tour de France previous to its Grand Départ in Strasbourg left Vinokourov out of the race and the workforce sponsor-less.
It was solely when Astana, a conglomerate of Kazakh companies named after the nation’s new capital, stepped in to resolve the monetary disaster that the workforce was definitively saved. Later that season, Vinokourov beat Alejandro Valverde to win his first and solely Grand Tour, Vuelta a España, successful three phases alongside the best way.
Issues grew much more difficult on a person stage for Vinokourov in 2007 when he examined optimistic for blood doping through the Tour de France, simply when he was preventing again from a sequence of crashes with two stage wins.
Banned for 2 years, on his return in 2009, once more racing for Astana, he then claimed one other version of Liège-Bastogne-Liège previous to closing out his profession with a gold medal in London’s Olympic Video games in 2012.
Since retirement, Vinokourov has had a broadly profitable profession as workforce supervisor, with the undoubted spotlight so far the victory within the 2014 Tour de France for Vincenzo Nibali.
After a number of leaner years, in 2023 Vinokourov managed to drag off the signing of Mark Cavendish, extensively thought-about to be the very best sprinter of his technology and on a remaining quest for a record-breaking thirty fifth stage win within the Tour de France.
Cavendish’s victory on the final stage of the 2023 Giro d’Italia gave Astana their first WorldTour win of the season and significantly boosted the Briton’s morale previous to July. And if Cavendish manages to win on this 12 months’s Tour, Vinokourov’s key function within the closing chapter of Cavendish’s profession will certainly make sure the Kazakh and Astana Qazaqstan are again within the limelight as nicely.
