The Astana Qazaqstan team is undergoing transformation after a massive investment from Chinese brand XDS Carbon-Tech, with Britain's Pete Kennaugh and Alex Dowsett joining the team in 2025 to drive change. 

Dan Benson revealed that Dowsett will be the team's performance engineer on his Substack channel, but Cyclingnews understands that Kennaugh will be directeur sportif. 

Mark Renshaw will also remain as directeur sportif after working closely with Mark Cavendish in 2023 and 2024. Cavendish was officially retired at the Tour de France Singapore Criterion and could also serve as an ambassador and manager on the Chinese support team. 

Astana Qazaqstan did not immediately reply when contacted by Cyclingnews.  

Team Manager Alexander Vinokourov has signed in 2026 3 new riders who will try to earn enough points to remain on the world Tour when the new 12 licenses are rewarded.

Alexey Lutsenko has moved to Israel - Premier Tech But new riders will include Alberto Bettiol, Wout Poels, Diego Ulissi, Mike Teunissen, Sergio Higuita, Clément Champoussin and Kiwi sprinter Aaron Gate, who have already joined.

The team's title sponsor has not yet been announced, but riders have recently started collecting X-Lab brand 2025 bikes made by XDS Carbon-Tech.

Cyclingnews first revealed the XDS Carbontech investment after seeing Vinokourov with Chinese representatives in Florence ahead of the Tour de France Grand Department store. 

Astana Qazaqstan missed the initial UCI WorldTour registration deadline due to the wording of the bank guarantee document. However, directeur sportif Stefano Zanini has recently said that the problem has been solved. The team will gather in Spain for a winter training camp on May 12 and will reveal their lineup, bikes and sponsors for 2025 before Christmas.    

Dan Benson revealed that Dowsett worked with Cavendish in the wind tunnel to help target a record 35th stage victory at the Tour de France. 

"It's a dream job," said Dowsett about his role as a performance engineer, created to leverage Dowsett's performance and bicycle expertise.

"I was able to work with him, i.e. with aero bottles on tour, after helping him highlight some areas where he could improve." I gave Wilier a two percent reduction in CDA, and he advised the team that they would take me.

Dowsett retired at the end of 2022 after winning multiple time trials and two stages at the Giro d'etalia. He will rejoin the world of Astana and professional cycling.

"Next year we have new sponsors and I've been working with them on some real basic things, so I'm making sure the bikes are good. They are really good bikes, but my process was to make sure the bikes were good enough to go racing and try to make them perfect."