Astana Pro Team finished record season in Guangxi
In the past 13 seasons, the team never won so many races as in 2019, with a total of 40 victories (37 wins in Astana colors and 3 wins in national teams), the Team’s official website reads.
The 12 general classification wins of the Kazakh team is a new record as well, as it’s 5 more than the old record of Astana Pro Team. In total, 15 different riders of the team were able to win at least a one-day race or GC, equalizing the team’s record. The rider with the most wins was Kazakh champion Alexey Lutsenko, scoring 10 victories in 2019, which is another record: Never before a rider from Kazakhstan won so many races in one season. Next to that, Jakob Fuglsang finished third in the UCI WorldTour classification in the most successful season of his career, winning the Monument race Liége-Bastogne-Liége and stage race Critérium du Dauphiné.
«We’re very proud of this very successful season of the team, it’s the result of hard work and determination by all of our riders and staff and the result of a very professional approach to the sport. We want to thank all our partners for making this happen, especially our main sponsor Samruk-Kazyna. We were able to celebrate great victories this season by many different riders, but we also know there are still ways to improve towards 2020. For our Kazakhstan project, it’s great to have Alexey Lutsenko performing so well this season with his 10 victories. Jakob Fuglsang showed to be a great leader with some great wins and his third place in the WorldTour ranking. Our young leader Miguel Angel Lopez had to deal with the high expectations after last year’s podiums in the Grand Tours, he gained a lot of experience this season where for sure he will benefit from in the upcoming seasons. The preparations for the 2020 season are already in full swing and we’re looking forward to challenging ourselves even further in the 15th season of Astana Pro Team. It will be the year of our anniversary, and we’ll not let that pass by unnoticed,» said team manager Dmitriy Fofonov.
In the Tour of Guangxi, the team didn’t add another victory to the list. Davide Villella finished ninth overall, and together with Davide Ballerini and Merhawi Kudus they scored four top 10’s in the past six days of the event. In the final stage, Davide Ballerini was not able to perform a sprint because of a crash in the final corner of the race. Pascal Ackermann took his second stage win, while Enric Mas secured his GC win in the final WorldTour event of 2019.
