 Yates, who becomes assistant directeur, was a top domestique |
Former Discovery Channel sporting director Sean Yates has joined Astana after the American team disbanded. Yates follows Discovery manager Johan Bruyneel, Tour de France winner Alberto Contador and rider Levi Leipheimer to the scandal-hit Kazakh team.
"Of course Astana has had some bad press," said Yates. "But Johan Bruyneel has never had a positive test with a team he has been involved with.
"And I am confident that we will not have any problems in the future."
Former Astana leader Alexandre Vinokourov was dismissed by the team after he tested positive for blood doping in this year's Tour de France.
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And two other riders from the team, Andrej Kashechkin and Matthias Kessler, have also failed doping tests this year.
Astana, who are Kazakh-sponsored but based in Switzerland, took a month out of competition after the Tour de France and were not invited to race in the Tour of Spain.
However, with a new management team and the recruitment of Contador and Leipheimer, Yates is confident that Astana will be challenging for success at next year's Tour de France.
"We have a very strong team for the Tour," he said. "With not only Alberto [Contador] but also Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloeden. On paper we are head and shoulders above the rest."
In a lengthy career, Yates rode the Tour de France 12 times (finishing nine times), won a stage and in 1994 became only the third Briton to wear the yellow jersey.
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