New investor, larger budget, renewed squad,… After several delicate seasons, can the Astana team return to the forefront?
Around 20th place in the UCI team rankings for the last three seasons, Astana is going through a complicated period even though it was one of the biggest teams in the peloton a few years ago. Could this change in 2025? In any case, this is what the team's general manager and former rider, Alexander Vinokourov, wants. In July, the Kazakh team announced that it had a new investor for the 2025 season, therefore revising its ambitions upwards.
Credit: ASO / Billy Ceusters
XDS: new investor and new bikes
XDS Company, one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in the world, with an annual production capacity of 10 million units, decided to invest after holding negotiations with the Kazakh WorldTour Astana Qazaqstan Team during the last Tour de France. The draft agreement provides for a long-term investment for a period of at least five years. The Kazakh team will therefore only ride bikes from their new Chinese partner and no longer Wilier, who has been their partner for five seasons.
Credit: ASO / Billy Ceusters
With the arrival of a large company like XDS, Astana will also benefit from a larger budget in the coming years. “ XDS will be the team's strongest reinforcement. We will ensure that the team has a very sufficient budget and the best technical support”, said Yancong Tan, CEO of XDS. “ We are pleased that XDS management fully shares our goals and future vision for the project. During the negotiations, we discussed many topics and our views on the development of the team completely coincided. XDS is ready to make a long-term investment, which will include, among other things, a technical partnership with a new bicycle brand,” said Alexandr Vinokurov.
Astana omnipresent during the transfer window
With 12 arrivals for 2025, the Astana team was very active on the transfer market this winter. Almost half of the team's riders will be new in 2025. Diego Ulissi, Wout Poels, Clément Champoussin, Sergio Higuita, Fausto Masnada,… The team has strengthened on all terrains. On the other hand, Alexey Lutsenko, one of the team's executives and the most prolific rider in terms of UCI points in recent years, will join the Israel – Premier Tech team.
Credit: ASO / Billy Ceusters
With the departure of Mark Cavendish, Max Kanter will be one of the only sprinters on the squad in 2025. Since the departure of Vincenzo Nibali and Miguel Angel Lopez, the teamAlexandr Vinokurov does not have riders capable of competing for the general classification on a Grand Tour, and this is not expected to improve in 2025. Despite the numerous arrivals, no profile is really cut out to compete for the general classifications on the biggest races, often acclaimed by teams for the number of UCI points at stake. However, with this renewal of the workforce, this new sponsor, a new bike, the Astana team will approach 2025 with other ambitions. Will this be enough to move up the UCI rankings and stay in the World Tour? First elements of response from the end of January.
