Interesting name…

Flamboyant Alexandre Vinokourov has, according to Biciciclismo, just launched a new continental team.

The name?

Vino4ever…

It will very interesting to see if the rather original name will prove to be a blessing or curse for the alleged new continental team. Vino4ever will join Kazakhstan’s extensive cycling ranks, and thus add to the existing Continental Astana squad and Astana World Tour team.

Riders will include Taras Voropayev (21), Kirill Prolubnikov (19), Vitaly Marukhin (19), Sergei Vlassenko (20) and Oleg Zemlyakov (20).

The team is named after (you guessed it) Alexander Vinokourov; the Kazakhstani who is known for his breaches on cycling’s code of conduct.

He has previously been caught doping multiple times, and has been accused of transfusing his father’s blood to enhance his own performances. He has also been accused of bribing his way to victory in the 2010 edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège (Swiss magazine L’Illustre has previously published the revealing mail correspondence that convincingly suggests that Vinokourov paid Kolobnev €100,000 for the victory), and of bribing Uran to let him win gold at the recent Olympics.

It will be interesting to see how Vino4ever fares, if they will serve as hatching machine to Kazakhstan's Astana, and how much they will be guided by Vino himself.