Astana Qazaqstan will be parting ways with Wilier as bike sponsor in 2025, as new Chinese investors XDS Carbon-Tech will be using the team as a vehicle to promote its bike brand X-Lab which the team are soon to begin using.
The likely bikes of choice will be X-Lab's AD9 aero bike and lightweight RS9, both of which showcase a move into the high-end of WorldTour performance bikes for the Chinese brand.
According to promotional material, the AD9 was taken to the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub Wind Tunnel (where Cyclingnews has also conducted comparative wind tunnel testing), where the Chinese brand claims it outperformed the Canyon Aeroad CFR.
The lightweight RS9, meanwhile, appears to have been used by an existing Chinese-sponsored cycling team, and the brand claims that the frame employs ultra-high modulus Toray T1100 carbon fibres.
Many WorldTour teams employ an aero and lightweight bike to split between sprint and climbing stages, so we would expect to see the AD9 and RS9 both put to use by the team in 2025.
The X-Lab may be seen in use as soon as next month, with Astana Qazaqstan's training camp taking place from December 7 to 19 - Cyclingnews understands that some riders have already received bikes.
Astana Qazaqstan's new performance engineer Alex Dowsett is also said to have been working with X-Lab to test and improve the bikes. Indeed, Dowsett's involvement might explain X-Lab's choice to test the bikes in Silverstone rather than a wind tunnel closer to the team or brand itself.
The XDS brand has historically served the entry-level of the cycling market with a rich offering of mountain bikes, e-bikes, and children's bikes. The X-Lab sub-brand, meanwhile, represents the premium offering from the Chinese manufacturer. Given the investment by parent company and carbon product manufacturer XDS Carbon Tech in the team, we will perhaps see the X-Lab brand extend this high-end offering into the European market.
The Shenzen-based company is among the largest of its kind, with a claimed production capacity of five million units, and its top-tier mountain bike has already been used in the Olympic Games by the Chinese mountain bike team.
Shenzhen is broadly considered to be a global centre for bike manufacturing, with major brands typically partnering with Chinese manufacturers - such as XDS, which likely owns several facilities in the region - to produce their carbon frames.
The investment from XDS into Astan Qazaqstan is understood to be considerable, with a commitment of between five to ten years which will push the Kazakh team to a budget level in line with the super teams of UAE Team Emirates and Visma-Lease a Bike.
The team is also likely to be registered as a Chinese WorldTour team in 2025, as it seeks to defend its WorldTour position ahead of relegations for the 2026 season.
