Eyewear supplier Scicon has blasted Astana Qazaqstan over Mark Cavendish wearing Oakley glasses, accusing the team of "not standing up for what is ethically right".
Cyclingnews revealed on Monday that the Italian brand had terminated its sponsorship contract with the Kazakh team and was looking at suing for damages.
Scicon has now sent a statement to Cyclingnews in which its stance on the Cavendish-Oakley clash is made plain.
"It is unfortunate that individual riders can compromise sponsorship agreements in this way," said Scicon's CEO, Heinrich Dannhauser.
"It is even more unfortunate that a team would not stand up for what is ethically the right thing to do - honoring the agreement and recognizing the significant investments that were made by Scicon.
"We took a strong stance in this case and could not make an exception for one rider and believe all sponsors of professional cycling should take note."
Astana Qazaqstan team boss Alexandr Vinokourov later issued a statement to Cyclingnews denying contract violation and claiming financial compensation had already been paid to Scicon. You can read the statement below.
Scicon joined Astana Qazaqstan as a sponsor at the start of 2022 but the brand, which also makes bike bags, objected to the idea of Cavendish wearing Oakley glasses as the 34-time Tour de France stage winner negotiated a contract with the Kazakh team in late December.
Cavendish was conspicuously without glasses when pictured training in his first weeks at Astana but he donned a pair of Oakley Katos for his first race of the season, the Muscat Classic, and has worn them ever since.
"Scicon Sports, a leading cycling eyewear brand on the UCI Tour for the past three seasons, have parted ways with Team Astana after two years. This is due to one of their riders, Mark Cavendish using a personal eyewear sponsor brand instead of the team sponsored brand, Scicon," read the statement.
"Scicon has withdrawn its entire sponsorship agreement with Team Astana which included eyewear, luggage, and bike bags, in the best interest of Scicon and its brand."
The statement was issued on Monday but the contract appears to have been terminated a good few weeks ago.
Alexey Lutsenko was spotted wearing Oakley glasses at the UAE Tour in late February and an increasing number of the team's riders have been using shades from different suppliers in races like Paris-NIce, Tirreno-Adriatico, and Milan-San Remo.
The riders are now free to choose any glasses they wish, although Astana Qazaqstan told Cyclingnews they are searching for a replacement sponsor.
Scicon made no reference to legal action in its statement but Cyclingnews understands it has long been looking into its options regarding pursuit of damages.
The Italian brand still supplies the UAE Team Emirates outfit of two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar as well as Jayco-AlUla.
"Our brand has grown significantly over the last three seasons. Many of the world's best riders use Scicon eyewear," said Dannhauser.
"This unfortunate situation will not deter us at a time when there are very exciting developments in our business and so much to look forward to."
Astana's response
Following the publication of our story, Astana Qazaqstan provided Cyclingnews with a statement, outlining their disagreement with Scicon's take on the matter.
The team insist there was no contractual violation and, importantly, state that financial compensation has already been paid to Scicon.
"The team declares with full responsibility that there were no violations of our contractual obligations respect to Scicon and we fully respected this agreement until the moment it has been terminated," said team boss Alexandr Vinokourov.
"At a certain point, we did not find common ground with the company and, as a result, the team decided to exercise its right, prescribed in the contract, to terminate the agreement with Scicon with the payment of appropriate monetary compensation.
"Astana Qazaqstan Team has always 100% fulfilled and fulfills all its sponsorship obligations and will adhere to this policy in the future."
