ASTANA (Reuters) – Vincenzo Nibali has rejoined Astana–Premier Tech five years after leaving, the Kazakh team said on Thursday.
Astana announced the 36-year-old’s arrival for the 2022 season with a number of cryptic posts on their social media channels, but they have not said for how long the Italian has signed.
Nibali, who has won all three grand tours including the 2014 Tour de France while at Astana, originally left the team after four years in 2016, having also won that season’s Giro d’Italia.
He joined Bahrain–Merida (now Bahrain Victorious) for the 2017 season and then signed with Trek-Segafredo for the 2020 campaign, however, he was never able rediscover the form he showed under Astana Team Principal Alexander Vinokourov.
Nibali’s arrival comes as both Merhawi Kudus (to EF Education-Nippo) and Aleksandr Vlasov (to Bora-Hansgrohe) have left Astana in the close season.
(Reporting by Joseph Walker; Editing by Toby Davis)
