China’s XDS Carbon Tech Backs Kazakh UCI WorldTour Cycling Team 

Shenzhen based carbon product maker XDS Carbon Tech is backing the Astana Qazaqstan UCI WorldTour cycling team. 

It is believed that the partnership “provides for long-term investment for a period of at least five years and financing at the level of leading WorldTour teams.” The deal heralds the arrival of a major Chinese sponsor in the men’s World Tour and will also see the Kazakh cycling team using XDS X-Lab cycles. 

The new investment will also be used to hire several big-name riders to target enough UCI ranking points to ensure the team retains WorldTour status in 2026 when the UCI awards new three-year World Tour licences. 

Alexander Vinokourov, the general manager of Astana Qazaqstan Team, will continue to play an important part in the team management but the new team is likely to be registered as a Chinese WorldTour team in 2025. 

According to ASN data, cycling has seen investment of about US$48.8m+ in the Asian sponsorship investment since Q421, with a quarterly average investment of almost US$4.6m during this period. The forecast for Q324 is also tipped to hit slightly over US$6.2m, about 35.8% higher than the usual quarterly average investment. As for top 3 markets for cycling sponsorship investment, it is unsurprising that China (28.8%), Japan (23.9%) and Singapore (20%) lead the race.