Did you read the Cycle Sport article in mid-2005 about the nascent state of the Kazak amateur cycling scene? It was just an unbelievable piece of journalism -- The comparison to the US couldn't have been starker. Our junior and espoir ranks are filled with Playstation-and-Pepsi-softened dilettantes whose frustrations in attempting to become The Next Lance will inevitably cause them to quit and settle for the comparative ease of law school or commercial real estate. In Kazakhstan they look at Alexander Vinokourov and Andrei Kivilev (RIP) as utterly messianic, and getting use of a 126mm-rear spacing Columbus SL frame with indexed downtube shifting is as close to deliverance from horrendous third-world poverty that any of them will ever get. Same world. Same sport. Different universes. The up-and-comers on the Kazah National Team all hope to ride Vino's coattails to a Euro contract -- after all, it's that or a lifetime mining for diamonds or farming barley.

This jersey is a lovely Baby Blue, Yellow, and White. It has an Assos logo and a small Kazak emblem on the front, along with a sizeable representation of the Kazak flag on the rear of the jersey. The colors and layout combine to make this a gorgeous jersey -- geo-political and Team Astana doping scandals aside. It's identical in construction to the legendary Assos Uni Jersey. It has the same fantastic cut and breathability thanks to its use of Micro-Cell fabric, and it comes with the same full zipper, three back pockets and one zippered pocket as the Uni. Available in Small-TIR.