The Gravel World Championship will be a unique event with Mathieu van der Poel and Peter Sagan, among others, at the start. But the championship’s amateur race also has a striking name: former Kazakh cyclist Aleksander Vinokourov.
Vinokourov put an end to his eventful career 10 years ago, and since then has been active as manager of his cycling team Astana. The former (and controversial) Olympic champion has been accused of doping, bribery, money laundering and other shady practices during and after his career, but does not seem to intend to leave the cycling world for the time being.
Whether his participation is to promote a new project, whether he wants to put himself in the spotlight, or whether he is a pure clay enthusiast remains unclear. What we do know is that he can be seen in Italy this weekend at the very first clay court World Cup.
In his career, Vinokourov won the Vuelta (2006), Liège-Bastogne-Liège (2005, 2010) and the Amstel Gold Race (2003).
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