The sponsors of Team Astana are not backing out and stand behind their cyclists. Despite the exclusions from races like the Tour de France, the sponsors have indicated their full support to Johan Bruyneel and his team, according to Sportwereld.be. Bruyneel is happy about it, stating that "I really appreciate the unconditional support that the team has received from our Kazakh sponsors and Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov. Despite his frustrations with the political battle, he continues to believe in our project and in our new programme. Unfortunately, it appears that certain organizers do not want to recognise the fact that we are a completely different team than that of 2007 and that they need to let us participate in the biggest races of the world."
