XDS Astana Team 🇰🇿 Preview 2025
New beginnings for the Kazakstan based team who have received huge backing from Chinese bike company XDS. Will this change see an uplift in results in 2025?
Astana have been on a downwards spiral over the last couple of seasons and are currently a shadow of their former selves, even at threat of WorldTour relegation in the near future
However, fans of the team will be hoping that the new major Chinese investment from XDS will be the catalyst to the team bouncing back to its best.
Here’s a snippet of the press release from the official team website on December 13 2024, regarding the new partnership with XDS:
“XDS, a leading bicycle brand in the Chinese market, is excited to announce its major investment in the prestigious UCI WorldTeam Astana. This historic move makes XDS solidifying the brand’s ambitions to expand its footprint in the global cycling community. As part of this agreement, the team will be rebranded as the XDS Astana Team, marking a new era for both the team and the brand.”
The statement goes on to further say that
“under XDS’s investment, the Astana team will benefit from the brand’s advanced engineering capabilities, cutting-edge bicycle technology, and strong financial backing.”
It is safe to say that the team have been backed in the winter transfer market, as the squad has undergone a major transformation…
2025 will certainly be an interesting year for Alexandre Vinokourov’s team.
2024 Recap
Victories: 12
WorldTour Victories: 1
MVP: Mark Cavendish
Despite not scoring the most UCI points (Lorenzo Fortunato), Mark Cavendish had the most wins this season for the team including the biggest of them all, number 35 at the Tour de France. Therefore he is the team’s MVP and without doubt the greatest sprinter of all time.
Breakout Star: Gianmarco Garofoli
Underrated Hero: Harold Tejada
Key Results:
🥇Tour de France Stage 5: Mark Cavendish
🥇Il Giro d’Abruzzo: Alexey Lutsenko
🥇Tour of Colombia Stage 2: Harold Tejada
Beyond Cavendish’s and the team’s success on stage 5 of the Tour de France, the team were pretty anonymous for large parts of the season especially in the big races where they used to be very competitive.
Transfers
With 14 riders in and 15 riders out, basically half of the team has changed. Such a significant overhaul will take time with the plethora of new riders needing to adapt to team’s environment. Combined with the Chinese investment which will the team culture shift significantly, as well as change bikes, it is difficult to expect things to all click straight away. This new XDS Astana project may need time to see the big benefits of the Chinese investment but 2025 will definitely see the team travel in a different direction in terms of its rider roster.
IN
Clément Champoussin 🇫🇷
Nicola Conci 🇮🇹
Aaron Gate 🇳🇿
Sergio Higuita 🇨🇴
Florian Samuel Kajamini 🇮🇹
Matteo Malucelli 🇮🇹
Fausto Masnada 🇮🇹
Wout Poels 🇳🇱
Alessandro Romele 🇮🇹
Haoyu Su 🇨🇳
Mike Teunissen 🇳🇱
Davide Toneatti 🇮🇹
Diego Ulissi 🇮🇹
Darren Van Bekkum 🇳🇱
There are a wide variety of riders who have been signed to the team for 2025. There are seasoned pros who are in the twilight of their careers but can still deliver big performances, such as Wout Poels, Mike Teunissen and Diego Ulissi. These riders have had plenty of successes in the past and have shown in the last 2 seasons that they are still capable of performing at a high level. XDS Astana Team will be hoping Poels, Teunissen and Ulissi still have another few good seasons left in the tank.
There are riders who have a point to prove in 2025 and beyond, the likes of Fausto Masada, Sergio Higuita and Clément Champoussin. These riders have all shown what they are capable of in the past, but have all either stagnated in recent seasons or even declined. 2025 will be a big year for these guys to try and bounce back to their best.
The team have also injected more youth into their roster with talented riders such as Florian Samuel Kajamini, Alessandro Romele, Davide Toneatti, and Darren Van Bekkum make the step up to the WorldTour full time.
Even when it comes to staff, the team have been busy as former 2x British Road Race Champion Peter Kennaugh joins the team after a couple of years at Trinity Racing. As well as this, former Astana rider Dario Cataldo will also join the staff ranks as will Belgian Lorenzo Lapage. Former British track world hour record holder Alex Dowsett will join the team as a Performance Engineer along with Helmut Dollinger, Manuel Crespo and Morgan Saussine.
Lots and lots of changes…
OUT
Samuele Battistella 🇮🇹
Gleb Brussenskiy 🇰🇿
Mark Cavendish 🇬🇧
Igor Chzhan 🇰🇿
Gianmarco Garofoli 🇮🇹
Yevgeniy Gidich 🇰🇿
Dmitriy Gruzdev 🇰🇿
Alexey Lutsenko 🇰🇿
Daniil Marukhin 🇰🇿
Michael Mørkøv 🇩🇰
Vadim Pronskiy 🇰🇿
Rüdiger Selig 🇩🇪
Gleb Syritsa 🏳️
Santiago Umba 🇨🇴
The biggest name to depart the team is the legend that is Mark Cavendish, who successfully became the greatest stage winner in Tour de France history by winning his 35 stage back in July. A historic achievement for both the Manx missile and the team who successfully completed their plan which was set out when they signed Cavendish. However, the signing of Cavendish and the shift towards lead out specialists was never the long term plan and so now that both Cavendish and the brilliant Michael Mørkøv have retired, the team have needed to be busy in the market.
Significantly, there has been a huge exodus of Kazakhstan riders, with 7 home riders leaving the team for 2025. Alexey Lutsenko and Dmitriy Gruzdev in particular stand out as major departures, two of the team’s longest serving riders, with Lutsenko taking the most wins in the team’s history. Big changes for the team that they will have to adapt to in 2025 and both riders will be missed.
Key Riders
Alberto Bettiol 🇮🇹
Alberto Bettiol signed for the team in August from EF Education EasyPost, after a very strong start which saw him win Milano-Torino before top 10 finishes in Milano-Sanremo and Tour of Flanders. He would continue this impressive form with a convincing victory to become Italian national champion. Bettiol wasn’t able to replicate this form in latter part of the season once he began to ride for Astana, but the team will be hoping for big things from the Italian champion in 2025.
Bettiol will begin his season in Australia at the Santos Tour Down Under, which has a good route for him this year. The Italian won the prologue there in 2023, and if he arrives to the race in top shape, could be a contender for the overall or some stages.
He is currently scheduled to ride Tirreno-Adriatico and Milano-Sanremo in March before he will likely tackle to cobbles, dreaming to repeat his Tour of Flanders victory in 2019. The team won’t be expecting him to win the monuments when MVDP and Pogačar exist, but they will be hoping that Bettiol can continue to consistently make the key selections and be competitive in the classics.
A fourth appearance at the Giro d’Italia is also on the cards, and as Italian champion, Bettiol will surely be targeting a stage win in the “il tricolore.” He has already won a stage at the Giro from a breakaway back in 2021, but this would surely be even more significant if he could land another whilst being Italian Champion.
Whether Bettiol appears at the Tour de France remains to be seen, but it is likely considering he was the team’s big name signing over the last year, and would be a contender for stage wins in breakaways.
Overall, a fit and firing Alberto Bettiol is likely the team’s best chance of a top result in the early season classics, and he is also one of their best chances of success in hilly one day races, and grand tour breakaways too. At 31 years old, 2025 is now the prime time for Bettiol to land another major win to add to his impressive palmares.
Lorenzo Fortunato 🇮🇹
Fortunato has shown over the years what he is capable of as a climber, especially winning atop the mighty Monte Zoncolan at the Giro d’Italia back in 2021. Whilst at Eolo-Kometa (now Polti-Kometa), Fortunato finished 16th and 15th in GC in back to back years at the Giro, illustrating that he could be a future top 10 grand tour finisher.
However, whilst Fortunato did make a step up in his first season at Astana by finishing 12th at the Giro before 16th at La Vuelta, he’s still yet to crack that top 10.
With a lack of other GC racers in the team, it seems that the logical plan for Fortunato will be to try and finally achieve the top 10 in either the Giro d’Italia or La Vuelta in 2025. Fortunato definitely made improvements in 2024 compared to his Eolo-Kometa days but his time trial ability remains a big weakness and may be what is mainly holding him back from the top 10.
Harold Tejada 🇨🇴
The 27 year old Colombian climber is one of the team’s most promising and was one of the best performing riders last season. Tejada is capable of riding a strong GC performance in smaller races, as demonstrated by his 6th on GC plus stage win at the Tour Colombia in February. He is yet to show that he is capable of riding GC at a grand tour, but he doesn’t necessarily need to do so in order to achieve good results.
Tejada illustrated at both the Tour de France and La Vuelta, he is a very combative rider who will always try to go on the attack. He was rewarded with multiple top 10 stage finishes at both grand tours this year, 2 at the Tour, and 3 at La Vuelta. For his size and the fact that he is Colombian, Tejada is a surprisingly strong time trialist as well.
Ultimately, he is a well rounded rider who could land his first WorldTour victory in 2025, perhaps a grand tour stage?.
More Riders To Watch
Clément Champoussin 🇫🇷
2025 will be the first season of his career that Clément Champoussin will not ride for a French team after spells at AG2R and Arkéa. Champoussin has shown what he is capable of in the past, when he won stage 20 of La Vuelta 2021 in impressive fashion. 2024 was a decent year for the 26 year old Frenchman, but a lot of his best results came in smaller races. It would be good to see him be more competitive in the ardennes and perhaps WorldTour week long stage races.
Sergio Higuita 🇨🇴
It has been a tough couple of seasons for Sergio Higuita, who just two years ago was one of the most promising and talented riders in the world. The Colombian will be hoping to get back to the level which saw him win the GC at Volta a Catalunya as well as a stage in the 2019 edition of La Vuelta.
Florian Samuel Kajamini 🇮🇹
The talented Italian won an epic stage at this year’s Tour de l’Avenir, a race in which he would finish 5th overall. He’s one for the future, but in the modern peloton, 21 is the new 26, so who knows what he is capable of in his first WorldTour season. It is safe to say that the team will be excited by his overall potential, climbing ability and punch he has.
Cees Bol 🇳🇱/ Max Kanter 🇩🇪
With Cavendish and Mørkøv now retired, the team will need riders to step up in the sprinting department. This responsibility will likely fall onto the shoulders of Cees Bol and Max Kanter.
Cees Bol became an integral part of Cavendish’s lead out since his move to the team and has had less opportunities to sprint for himself in this period. We know he is a talented sprinter in his own right with wins at Paris Nice, Tour of Britain and Nokere Koerse in the past. Bol also finished runner up in a sprint at the 2020 Tour de France behind Wout van Aert.
Max Kanter up until this season had plenty of top 5 results in his career but was yet to lift his arms aloft as a professional. That changed when he won at the Tour of Turkey this year. He came close again on a couple of occasions in Germany and China towards the end of the season. His confidence will have skyrocketed now that he has lifted the weight of winning his first race off his shoulders. Confidence is key for sprinters so could this be a catalyst for the big German?
However, both are unlikely to be able to win a sprint in a grand tour stage in 2025 considering the competition. Therefore I think it would be sensible if the team optimise the two riders schedules so they can compete in sprints in races where they will have a better chance of success. Essentially farming UCI points to help the team survive the relegation battle, as they are currently in deep trouble of losing their WorldTour license in 2026.
Henok Mulubrhan 🇪🇷
When it comes to Eritrean cyclists, Biniam Girmay steals all the headlines and rightly so considering what he has achieved, but 25 year old Henok Mulubrhan has gone well under the radar and is someone who could become another household name in African cycling. With his first year at WorldTour level under his belt, expect Mulubrhan to make another step up in 2025, beginning at the Santos Tour Down Under in January. He is a 3x African champion and will sport a special jersey in 2025 to show this.
Wout Poels 🇳🇱
The 2016 Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner is now a veteran in the sport but it was only in 2023 where Poels won a stage at both the Tour de France and La Vuelta, demonstrating that he is still a great rider. Poels was still more than competitive in 2024, and even though his signing won’t be for the long term, he could well be a very effective rider for the team in 2025, bringing tons of experience.
Christian Scaroni/ Simone Velasco 🇮🇹
A big year for the two Italian riders who have impressed over the last couple of years with the latter even being Italian champion at the start of the 2024 season. Both are coming into their peaks and will be motivated to be competitive in the big races in 2025.
Mike Teunissen 🇳🇱
Former Maillot jaune wearer and u23 cyclocross world champion Mike Teunissen looks to be one of the signings which has gone under the radar in the off season. He will add plenty to the team’s classics squad and be a key lieutenant in the grand tours. At 32 years of age, Teunissen is well into his prime and has tons of experience which will be important for a team which is experiencing plenty of change.
Entire team roster as of 31/12/24
Davide Ballerini 30 🇮🇹
Alberto Bettiol 31 🇮🇹
Cees Bol 29 🇳🇱
Clément Champoussin 26 🇫🇷
Anthon Charmig 26 🇩🇰
Nicola Conci 27 🇮🇹
Yevgeniy Fedorov 24 🇰🇿
Lorenzo Fortunato 28 🇮🇹
Aaron Gate 34 🇳🇿
Michele Gazzoli 25 🇮🇹
Sergio Higuita 27 🇨🇴
Florian Samuel Kajamini 21 🇮🇹
Max Kanter 27 🇩🇪
Anton Kuzmin 28 🇰🇿
Harold Martín López 24 🇪🇨
Matteo Malucelli 31 🇮🇹
Fausto Masnada 31 🇮🇹
Henok Mulubrhan 25 🇪🇷
Wout Poels 37 🇳🇱
Alessandro Romele 21 🇮🇹
Christian Scaroni 27 🇮🇹
Ide Schelling 26 🇳🇱
Haoyu Su 24 🇨🇳
Harold Tejada 27 🇨🇴
Mike Teunissen 32 🇳🇱
Davide Toneatti 23 🇮🇹
Diego Ulissi 35 🇮🇹
Darren Van Bekkum 22 🇳🇱
Simone Velasco 29 🇮🇹
Nicolas Vinokurov 22 🇰🇿