Astana Pro Team – leader of 2019 season's beginning
For Astana Pro Team the start of the season has been turned out more than impressive. It was a record-breaking beginning of the year: in the first 13 races of the season, the riders of the Kazakh project won 15 races and took 20 podium places! At the moment, it is absolutely the best result among all professional cycling teams around the world.
Moreover, 7 out of 15 victories were won in the general classifications of stage races in a record-short 22-day period.
It has to be noted, that all 7 victories were scored with 7 different riders: Ion Izagirre won the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Miguel Angel Lopez won the Tour Colombia 2.1, Gorka Izagirre took the title at the Tour de la Provence, Luis Leon Sanchez became the winner of the Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia, Alexey Lutsenko conquered the Tour of Oman, Jakob Fuglsang won the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol, while Merhawi Kudus won the Tour du Rwanda.
- Indeed, we have a great start of the season. You can't ask for more! But, behind all these nice victories there is a huge work of all team: riders, staff, sponsors, technical partners. It should be noted that the beginning was laid in 2018 at the start of last season. We have held a series of training camps, have changed a lot in the preparation of the athletes, in the approach to the training process, in cooperation with our sponsors and partners we have improved many technical components.
- And as a result, the beginning of 2018 turned out very successful: last February we won 6 races and took 18 podiums, of which 5 were in the overall standings of the stage races. In this off-season we were able to improve even more: two big training camps in December and January gave the whole team an excellent base for the new season, while two altitude training camps in Colombia and Tenerife allowed the team leaders to reach a good level by their first races. In addition, we have grown in technical terms, significantly strengthened such directions as individual and team time trials.
- And thus, the beginning of the year was successful again. And due to the fact that this season we could "change" some podiums to wins, the start of the year became a kind of record. Of course, we are happy with it, but we are not going to stop and relax. We are aware, that this is only the beginning of the year and the biggest part of the season and all the main goals of the team are still lying ahead. So, we are ready for the new challenges. The team has a great and very warm atmosphere, we have fantastic support from our sponsors, and, first of all, the General Partner Samruk Kazyna. So, we are ready to continue, - shared his opinion about the beginning of the season Alexandr Vinokurov, general manager of Astana Pro Team.
