Longstanding XDS Astana workforce supervisor Alexandr Vinokourov has issued a stark warning that the squad might want to stay within the WorldTour for its new four-year cycle in 2026 so as to proceed.
In a serious interview with L’Équipe, Vinokourov mentioned that new Chinese sponsor XDS wished to go on backing the squad within the years to come back.
But he warned that its survival relied on staying within the WorldTour – one thing that as present standings go stays very a lot within the stability, with XDS Astana in twenty first place within the UCI rankings and nicely adrift of the final of the highest 18 locations that assure automated admission to biking’s prime desk.
Vinokourov remained upbeat concerning the workforce’s probabilities of reviving their fortunes, pointing to new signings like Wout Poels and Sergio Higuita to attempt to garner extra factors. However, his plans to deliver each Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) into the workforce didn’t work out.
“We’re real looking, there are two or three groups proper now who’ve one of the best riders within the peloton, so we have now to adapt,” Vinokourov advised L’Équipe.
“I attempted to persuade Mauro Gianetti [UAE Team Emirates-XRG team principal] to let me purchase out Juan Ayuso, I do not assume that may have affected UAE overly as a result of they’ve sufficient star riders to win in all places.
“We’d have favored to have had him, however with out his administration’s settlement, that wasn’t attainable. We had been additionally on the path of Vlasov to get him to come back again to us, and we may have achieved it if Evenepoel had signed with Red Bull; they’d have handed him on so Remco may have his spot.”
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When it got here to describing Astana’s earlier season, the previous Olympic Champion didn’t pull any punches, saying that the one key success had been Mark Cavendish’s record-breaking thirty fifth Tour de France win. However, past that, he certified it immediately as “clearly a shit season, in any other case we would not have 5,000 UCI factors [to regain a guaranteed WorldTour position for 2026 – Ed.] to attempt to get again.”
Vinokourov denied the rumours that the XDS Astana annual workforce funds now stood at over €50 million, saying it was presently lower than 30 million. However, it had nonetheless permitted him to signal top-ranking riders together with Higuita, Poels, Fausto Masnada, Clément Champoussin, and Diego Ulissi.
He additionally revealed that the workforce was utilizing a knowledge analyst to calculate which races had been greatest for them to realize UCI factors. At the Tour Down Under the workforce scored 30, although that they had extra luck on the GP Castellón and Clàssica Valenciana, racking up 315 factors by way of two podiums and varied minor locations on the pair of Spanish races.
“We do not have a rider to win an general classification in a three-week race however we are able to goal to strike some necessary blows,” Vinokourov mentioned.
“We’ve labored quite a bit on the query of essentially the most helpful programs for us due to a software program program made by our information analyst which tells us to go to such and such a race relying on the depth of the sector and the chance of getting kind of factors.”
He cited the Volta ao Algarve as a working example the place the presence of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), and UAE would scale back their probabilities of success.
Asked if the backing of the Chinese sponsors into 2026 hinged on their ongoing presence within the WorldTour, quite than monetary assist, Vinokourov pointed on the larger image, about which he remained resolutely upbeat.
“We do not have a alternative, we have now to stay within the WorldTour to proceed to outlive,” he mentioned. “I’m satisfied we’ll be capable to reverse the pattern and discover our place amongst one of the best.
“It was superb luck to cross paths with XDS. They’re celebrating their thirtieth anniversary and that is the workforce’s twentieth, so it is a good marriage.”