Astana Qazaqstan Team

Astana Qazaqstan Team
	Alexey Lutsenko and Ion Izagirre at the 2021 Tour de la Provence
Team information
UCI code	AST
Registered	Switzerland (2007); Luxembourg (2008); Kazakhstan (2009–present)
Founded	2007
Discipline(s)	Road
Status	UCI WorldTeam
Bicycles	BMC (2007); Trek (2008–2009); Specialized (2010–2016); Argon 18 (2017–2019); Wilier Triestina (2020–)
Components	Shimano/FSA
Website	Team home page
Key personnel
General manager	Alexander Vinokourov
Team manager(s)	Serguei Yakovlev; Gorazd Štangelj; Stefano Zanini; Dmitriy Sedoun; Dmitriy Fofonov; Alexandr Shefer
Team name history
2007–2020	Astana Pro Team
2021	Astana–Premier Tech
2022–	Astana Qazaqstan Team
	Current season

Astana Qazaqstan Team (UCI team code: AST) is a professional road bicycle racing team sponsored by the Samruk-Kazyna, a coalition of state-owned companies from Kazakhstan and named after its capital city Astana. Astana attained UCI ProTeam status in its inaugural year, 2007. Following a major doping scandal involving Kazakh rider Alexander Vinokourov, team management was terminated and new management brought in for the 2008 season. The team was then managed by Johan Bruyneel, former team manager of U.S. Postal/Discovery Channel team. Under Bruyneel the ethical nature of the team did not improve, although Astana in this period was very successful.

With a lineup including Grand Tour winner Alberto Contador, as well as runner-up Andreas Klöden the results were good, but the team was on the verge of financial collapse in May 2009. A battle for control of the team led to the return of Vinokourov for the 2009 Vuelta a España and caused Bruyneel and at least fourteen of its riders to leave at the end of the 2009 season, most for Team RadioShack. Only four Spanish riders, including Contador, and most of the Kazakhs remained with the rebuilt team for 2010. Those four Spaniards all left the team for Saxo Bank–SunGard in 2011.