Former Isle of Man cycling star Peter Kennaugh has joined Astana Qazaqstan as a sports director ahead of the 2025 season.

The Olympic champion and Commonwealth Games medallist has agreed to join the Kazakhstan-based team for the new campaign, making the switch from British team Trinity Racing.

The latter’s road racing team looks set to fold in the near future and concentrate only on mountain bike events, therefore the Manxman will depart in the coming weeks.

Former British national road race champion Kennaugh hung up his cycling cleats in 2019 after a successful professional career which also saw him play a key role in Team Sky’s domination of the Tour de France yellow jersey.

Now he joins an Astana team which helped fellow Manxman Mark Cavendish claim a record-breaking 35th stage victory at this year’s Le Tour before his retirement was confirmed last week.

Astana general manager – and fellow Olympic gold medallist – Alexandr Vinokurov commented on the additions of Kennaugh alongside Lorenzo Lapage and Dario Cataldo: ‘Our team will welcome three new directors. We know Lapage very well: he is an experienced and responsible sports director with an excellent vision of the race, as well as a great administrator and team coordinator off the bike.

‘In addition, we have two young sports directors: Peter Kennaugh and Dario Cataldo. Both are former professional riders with a fresh perspective on modern cycling.

‘Kennaugh already has some experience as a sports director, while Cataldo is transitioning directly from being a rider to this new role.’