Reports suggest XDS may withdraw sponsorship of the XDS-Astana team before the scheduled 2029 date

Reports in the French sports paper L'Equipe have emerged questioning the future of bike manufacturer XDS as a name sponsor of the XDS-Astana team.

Escaping what was, at one stage, almost certain relegation from the WorldTour at the end of 2025, the Kazakh squad have been one of the revelations of the men’s peloton in the last two years since the Chinese bike manufacturer came on board.

In 2025, XDS’s first year as a title sponsor, the team cleverly targeted UCI points at races all over the World, closing the year as the fourth-ranked team and escaping the drop to ProTeam level. While they slipped to sixth place in 2026, they still finished ahead of the vast bulk of WorldTour teams, with Netcompany-Ineos and Soudal-QuickStep among the outfits trailing in their wake.

Now that progression could be under threat, with L'Equipe reporting the Chinese company is unhappy with some of the changes at the top of the team, their departure allegedly possible as soon as next year, despite having committed until the end of 2029.

XDS’s issues with the team are not known, but have emerged in the wake of the appointment of Yana Seel as General Manager. Belgian with some Kazakh heritage, Seel was Chief Executive Officer of the team between 2018 and 2021 and rejoined in a similar job in early October. Her new role at the team is mainly financial and commercial, though some responsibilities are sporting, influencing rider transfers and race schedules.

However, when she initially left the team in 2021, there were rumours of a clash with General Manager Alexandr Vinokurov, something Seel denied in an interview with Het Laatste Nieuws.

"I left the team at the time because the team wanted to focus exclusively on the Kazakh market and Kazakh sponsors. They didn't need me for that, and they could work perfectly well with another general manager. My added value lay precisely in developing international partnerships and attracting foreign sponsors."

It is this historic, though rumoured, clash that might have unsettled XDS, who, according to L’Equipe, are apparently considering joining forces with another top team.

Seel has a rich history in team governance, working at Lotto-Dstny as Chief Business Officer for two years, before moving to the UAE ADQ Women’s WorldTour team, first as Head of Business and Communications, then as Team Principal, leaving in summer 2026.

As well as working with Astana, XDS provided bikes for the Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi team in 2025, though they have been replaced by BMC for next year and beyond.

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