After brilliant Giro, Astana sticks to same strategy for Tour de France, Dutch sprint train's roles still unclear
CyclingTuesday, 01 July 2025 at 11:43
XDS Astana continues its quest for UCI points in 2025 and a Tour license for the 2026-2028 period, aiming for a Tour de France selection, with stage wins as the primary objective. The Kazakh cycling team has made room for two Dutch riders but should also be able to perform well in the mountains. Is another mountain jersey within reach?
Astana is coming off an extremely successful Giro d'Italia, where, in addition to chasing stage wins, the mountain classification was also a major goal. Lorenzo Fortunato dominated for three weeks and took home the polka dot jersey, along with hundreds of UCI points. Christian Scaroni won a stage, even scoring a 1-2 with Fortunato in a tough mountain stage. In the UCI Team Ranking, XDS Astana has thus moved up from the relegation spot to safety.
In the Tour de France, it is expected to continue with a selection that should be able to hold its own in all areas. There is no real GC rider in the team, but with all the big guns in the peloton, many teams are deliberately not aiming for a top-ten finish. Climbers Clément Champoussin (photo), Sergio Higuita, and Harold Tejada should be able to stand out in the breakaways in the mountain stages. All three also have a strong punch for a hilltop finish.
Simone Velasco and the brand-new Kazakh champion, Yevgeniy Fedorov, are the team's all-rounders, men who can handle hills and are therefore well-suited to many stages. The sprint train is Dutch, with Cees Bol joining Mike Teunissen, who was already announced. Davide Ballerini is also there as an experienced sprinter and lead-out man. No details about the division of roles have been announced in
a press release yet.
Read the full selection below the photo.
Selection XDS Astana - Tour de France 2025
Davide Ballerini
Cees Bol
Clément Champoussin
Yevgeniy Fedorov
Sergio Higuita
Mike Teunissen
Harold Tejada
Simone Velasco
Cees Bol
Clément Champoussin
Yevgeniy Fedorov
Sergio Higuita
Mike Teunissen
Harold Tejada
Simone Velasco
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Latest Comments
- Maybe I was a bit disrespectful to Heiden. What he did was unique and exceptional but he wasn't the only one who combined those distances, nowadays it is just not possible and nobody competes in both distances. The same is true for cycling with for example the combination of Roubaix and de Tour de France. In Merckx era there were more riders who managed a top10 in both races than currently.Joostmehrtens19-06-2025
- Two old men shouting at pigeons in the park…JonS16-06-2025
- Out of touch old men hankering after their youth through rose tinted spectacles, their arrogance almost outshines their irrelevance. Turn the volume down, this modern stuff just isn't music like we used to sing...johnny20whales16-06-2025
- In talking speed skating, the days when Heiden did that, nobody else did that. And Eddy couldn't do the equivalent of the bike. His 200 on the velodrome was good, but not world competitive for gold. Heiden was in his own world on the ice, moreso than Eddy if we pretend Eric didn't have a very short career on the ice.Veganpotter16-06-2025
- They wouldn't have dropped HIM so easily.... the GOAT. They would have dropped the rest from that era easily thoughVeganpotter16-06-2025
- Merckx was able to win in a break away on a flat (sprinters) stage, what do you mean they did not drop that easily in his time. Vlaeminck won in the mountains and the classics, but now you need to specialise. The days that a Eric Heiden could win the sprint and the 10k and everything in between are long gone and cycljng is no differentJoostmehrtens16-06-2025
- Carsapaz and Del torro were not capable of chasing Yates. They paused and looked at each other because they didn't have it in them. Yates had kept his powder dry waiting for this stage and demolished both of them. They lost Yates won. Your second guessing is utter nonsense., if either felt they could close Yates down they would have , just like they did countless times for other riders. They blew up , Yates excelled.Uphillbilly05-06-2025
- Carapaz is full of it. He is absolutely irrelevant after a rant at del Toro. Isaac had no obligations to do anything for Carapaz. It should remind one of the saying that goes lke this: "If I jump off the bridge, are you going to jump too?" If Caapaz wanted to win the Giro he should have chased Yates with or without Isaac. And if del Toro could follow, then so be it. But it was Carapaz's choice to slow down and stare at Isaac. Isaac was on the radio at times and you can bet he was being told by the Team car to do just what he was doing. Did I like that he didn't set out after Yates himself, NO. But the 21 year old was probably being instructed to do what he did, otherwise you can bet we would have heard from UAE mgmt. that Isaac chose to ignore their orders. But what we did hear was they were happy with his result. Which I think was a terrible betrayal of their young rider, who I think was capable of more than that penultimate stage showed. The Giro finished on a truly sour note as far as I'm concerned, because it was not "raced" The most crucial stage of the whole 21 stage race was simply given away, playing games with the unwritten rules of bicycle racing. "Leaders jerseys responsibility" and all that nonsense. Just RACE! It was disgraceful.
reemmo004-06-2025 - Well this aged like fine milkGlyn31-05-2025
- This is just mean-spirited.agnessk29-05-2025