XDS-Astana won’t change course despite turnaround: "We’re not really talking about wins anymore, now it’s all about points"

At the end of 2024, Astana was in 21st place, with a huge gap to the safe 18th spot. The mission to stay in the WorldTour seemed impossible. “We knew it would be difficult, but it was twist or stick,” sports director Alexandre Shefer told Domestique. “We had to do something.” With the arrival of Chinese sponsor XDS, the team was revitalized: no fewer than 14 new riders were recruited. “We strengthened the team compared to previous years with points in mind.”

That is ultimately the key: the points. Every decision the team made was focused on the quest for point. “Many times, we sent our strongest riders to smaller races rather than to WorldTour races. We’ve had strong teams at races like Turkey, Hainan and so on, because we know there are a lot of points of offer there. And with the team we have right now and the level generally, we can maybe be more confident of a big result there than in a WorldTour race.”

It took some getting used to, the change that was made. ‘We aimed more at scoring points than winning races, given that we were in such difficulty. It was different to what we did in previous years because we had never raced in search of points before. Unfortunately, we got to a point where, in order to save ourselves, we needed to start getting placings from two or three riders rather than racing to win. It’s not ideal, but in this moment our aim is to save ourselves.’ Nevertheless, XDS-Astana has already won 23 races this year.

After all that success, however, the Tour de France was a bit of a disappointment. No stage wins, and Sergio Higuita was the best-placed rider in 14th place. “At the Tour, we brought a solid team with some good riders, but a lot of them didn’t have great condition, and the general level was really high,” Shefer explains. “We hoped for a bit more, but if you’re not at 100% there, it’s very difficult to come away with a result.”

XDS-Astana is now in sixteenth place in the WorldTour rankings, with a lead of more than 2,500 points over the struggling Cofidis. But the tactics remain the same. “But now we’ll see what the rest of the season brings and if we can collect more points. Because we’re not really talking about wins anymore, now it’s all about points. We’re only thinking about points, and the whole team is united behind that idea. We sit down every week and tally how many points we’ve scored, and we also look at our rivals.”

“For the smaller teams, it will be like this even next year,” says the former cyclist. "If you don’t have one of the biggest riders and if you’re not certain that you won’t have worries about relegation, then you’re going to have to keep this philosophy to get points to save yourself. In the WorldTour these days, we’ve got a Serie A and a Serie B. You have the top five teams in the world who have all the biggest champions. And then you’ve got the rest who are fighting for points."