Alexander Nikolaevich Vinokourov, born on the 16th of September 1973 is one of the greats that cycling has to offer. Currently he is a former Kazakhistani professional at road racing and general manager of the UCI Pro team Astana. Of his many achievements in world cycling, the gold medal at the London Olympics was sure to end his career at an all time high.
Alexander Vinokourov was banned from cycling for two years after he and the Astana team were disqualified from the Tour de France in 2007. From then on it had been a rising curve for Alexander Vinokourov. He was always going to deal with unique analysis after he won the Olympic street competition on the 28th of July 2012, but though concerns about doping endangered to throw darkness over what should have been a wondrous Olympic victory, Vinokourov said that his doping past was well behind him. After 12 years he finally made his Olympic gold win in London. His never say die attitude left quite a lot of fans in the world of cycling.
Team Astana started as a nationwide venture, designed as a career for the dreams of Alexander Vinokourov and Andrey Kashechkin. It saw many ups and downs but finally lost after all the doping scandals associated to it in 2007.The Astana team which was nowhere at first in 2012, but it came out of the blue to win two of the Adrennes Classics and managed to be in the first five ranks of another by late April. Astana met or surpassed objectives on almost all fronts. The exemption was perhaps Roman Kreuziger, who seemed to still paying back for his “small motor” opinion about Vincenzo Nibali years ago. Long heralded as an upcoming tour champion, Kreuziger’s ongoing ability of winning a lot of achievements in smaller level events has still kept him from winning a tour.