The Chinese aero frames used by the XDS Astana team are now available in the UK for purchase, with the frameset now listed online for £2,553.
The team formerly known as Astana Qazaqstan became XDS Astana in December last year after the Chinese firm acquired naming rights for the squad managed by Alexander Vinokourov, with its riders on the brand-new X-LAB AD9 machine.
Astana were previously sponsored by Willier Triestina - with Mark Cavendish making Tour de France history aboard a machine from the Italian brand - but the deal with Willier ended when XDS came on board and ramped up the team’s budget. XDS were a little known firm based in Shenzen, China, before they sponsored Astana, but also happen to have one of the largest carbon fibre factories in the world.
Spotted by road.cc, the frameset has been listed for purchase by CycleGears at a cost of £2,553 and is available in three different colours - cloud, blue cloud and black silver. Clearly, this is still a lot of money to spend on a frameset. However, it is still cheaper than the equivalent frameset from brands like Trek and Specialized, who sponsor other WorldTour teams Lidl-Trek and Soudal Quick-Step respectively (Specialized sponsor Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe too).
Trek’s Madone frameset is available for around £5,500, whereas Specialized's S-Works Tarmac SL8 frameset is on the market for about £4,000, depending on the retailer.
The full aero machine used by the pros has dropped seat stays, a cutout seat tube, deep-section aero tubes, and a fully integrated cockpit, which all combine to make the XDS offering a modern aero racing bike.
The Van Rysel RCR Pro was thought to be the most affordable bike on the WorldTour last year, but it could potentially be very straightforward to better the £7,400 price tag on the RCR with a few simple upgrades to the XDS frame.
A full setup from XDS to match that used by the pros on the Astana has not yet been spotted online. The team's riders will be using machines fully equipped with Shimano Dura-Ace groupsets, Vision wheels, Continental tyres and Prologo saddles in WorldTour races throughout the season.
