Thanks to a tactical master plan and near-perfect execution, Astana all of a sudden came close to the very best teams

XDS Astana was in bad shape after 2024, so it had to pull out everything it had to a place in the WorldTour after 2025. It succeeded, and that was due to a tactical master plan with near-perfect execution. How did the team pull it off? We take a look at Astana's year of success.

The year had barely begun when Astana had already almost managed to win a WorldTour race, as Aaron Gate finished second in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. In doing so, it laid the foundation for the unprecedented amount of UCI points - 16,704, only UAE, Visma | Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek scored more - that the Kazakh formation would achieve in 2025, to maintain its place in the WorldTour.

Those points would not even be gained so much in the one-day races. It did win the Classic Var in the spring thanks to Christian Scaroni, the Lotto Famenne Ardenne Classic in May thanks to Max Kanter, the Giro dell'Appennino in June thanks to Diego Ulissi and the Giro dell Romagna in the fall thanks again to Scaroni, but that was about it.

Gate's second place down under would also be one of the Kazakh formation's few notable results in the really big classics. Alberto Bettiol was third in the GP de Québec, while Simone Velasco just missed out on the podium in Liège-Bastogne-Liège with a fourth place. Other than that, it wasn't much for the light blue formation in the one-day races.

The flow of points came mainly in the stage races. Astana played its cards smartly, taking strong teams to the somewhat weaker stage races, leading to many successes (and UCI points). It thus won the overall classification in the Tour of Taihu Lake, Tour of Magnificent Qinghai, Boucles de la Mayenne, Tour of Hungary, Tour of Turkey, Tour of Hellas and Tour des Alpes-Maritimes.

Those GC-wins were supported by a good number of stage wins. In the aforementioned stage races, the team won no fewer than ten stages. There were further stage wins in the Tour de Langkawi (four) and the Tour of Hainan (two), as well as as as a WorldTour-level stage win, thanks to Lorenzo Fortunato in the Tour de Romandie. The team ended up winning 32 times, which is 20 more than in 2024.

Astana had its absolute highlight in the Giro d'Italia, when Scaroni and Fortunato became first and second in stage 16. Ultimate mountain jersey winner Fortunato left the victory to his younger teammate, who also finished second in the mountain classification. It highlighted the team spirit at Astana, which thus once again managed to score a whole bunch of UCI points.

Astana began the crucial year with a plan, which was necessary to secure its place in the WorldTour. It executed that plan almost perfectly and so Alexandre Vinokourov's team had a great year, achieving its goal. One monster win and loads of UCI points ensure that we rate Astana's 2025 with a nice 7.8.

Whereas last year it replaced as many as 14 riders, this winter things are a lot quieter at Astana. The team already had some riders under contract until at least 2026 and it also extended a lot of contracts. So the Kazakh formation didn't have to be very active on the transfer market.

It did manage to acquire Arjen Livyns from Lotto. The Belgian will join his new team to strengthen the classic core. Astana was a welcome exit for Cristían Rodríguez, as the Spaniard saw his team Arkéa-B&B Hotels disappear. The team also brought back sprinter Gleb Syritsa from the development team and recruited Marco Schrettl, the number three of the junior-Worlds in Rwanda, earlier this year.

With that, the team replaced about seven riders. Nicolas Vinokourov retired, as did Ide Schelling, and the Kazakh youngster will work as DS at Astana. Furthermore, Dutchmen Cees Bol and Wout Poels opted for a new adventure, as well as Anthon Charmig, Michele Gazzoli and Fausto Masnada.

Transfers in: Arjen Livyns (Lotto), Cristían Rodríguez (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Marco Schrettl (Tirol KTM) and Gleb Syritsa (development team)

Transfers out: Cees Bol (Decathlon CMA CGM), Anthon Charmig (Uno-X), Michele Gazzoli (Solution Tech-Vini Fantini), Fausto Masnada (MBH Bank CSB Ballan), Wout Poels (Unibet Rose Rockets), Nicolas Vinokourov (retirement) and Ide Schelling (retirement)

Not much happened in the transfer market, so next year Astana will mainly rely on the same riders as this year. Therefore, it will be mainly be the more experienced riders who will have to take their responsibility. Fortunato is already 29 years old, Bettiol 32, Gate 35 and newcomers Livyns and Rodríguez are respectively 31 and 30 years old.

Still, the Kazakh formation also has quite a few young riders aboard for 2025. Dutchman Darren van Bekkum is still only 23 and will hope to find the form that he had with the Visma | Lease a Bike development squad in 2024, thus making a real step up. The 24-year-old Harold Martín López already showed he made that step this year, with four wins.

Furthermore, it still has Matteo Malucelli on board, the sprinter who was stringing together victories at the end of the year. With Harold Tejada and Sergio Higuita there should also be enough pure climbing power to dare to go on the offensive in the mountains, while the young Schrettl could also be a top talent.