{"id":197058,"date":"2024-10-23T12:35:06","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T12:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=197058"},"modified":"2024-10-23T12:35:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T12:35:06","slug":"astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/","title":{"rendered":"Astana Qazaqstan Look to Transfer Market to Avoid Relegation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The future looks precarious for the Kazakh cycling team, which sits 21st in UCI\u2019s World Team Rankings, with 6,383 points, the lowest of all the World Tour teams and well below the 18th-placed Uno-X Mobility, a second-level Pro team. Only the top 18-ranked teams will be awarded a World Tour license for 2026. To receive invitations to World Tour races, such as the Tour de France, Astana Qazaqstan\u00a0will have to leapfrog not only Uno-X, but also Cofidis and Ark\u00e9a\u2013B&B Hotels, who will also be fighting desperately to make the grade.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That sounds like an uphill battle, which is why Astana has been so busy in the transfer market, signing Italian champion Alberto Bettiol (from EF Education\u2013EasyPost), Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Nicola Conci (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates), Sergio Higuita (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Mike Teunissen (Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty), Aaron Gate (Burgos-BH), and, most recently, Cl\u00e9ment Champoussin (Ark\u00e9a\u2013B&B Hotels).<\/p>\n

These riders are not superstars, nor are they prospective Grand Tour winners. They are simply proven point-getters, because Astana is looking for survival, not glory. For example, Bettiol won Milano-Torino, a stage, and the GC of the Boucles de la Mayenne, contributing a total of 1,563 UCI points in 2024. Ulissi won a stage and the GC of the Tour of Austria and finished second in the Czech Tour and the Tour of Poland, amassing 1,475 points. Had they both ridden for Astana this year, the team would be sitting five spots higher in the UCI rankings and approaching 2025 without anxiety or heartburn.<\/p>\n

You may ask how an established professional team like Astana put itself in such a hazardous position. Two words: Mark Cavendish. The team built its program around the already legendary sprinter\u2019s quest to win a 36th Tour de France stage<\/a> and thereby surpass Eddy Merckx as the sole record holder for most Tour stage wins. Mission accomplished. But Astana sacrificed team success for individual success. Cavendish was supposed to win that record-breaking stage in 2023, but things did not go as planned, as often happens, and so Astana spent two years on that quest.<\/p>\n

\n
\"decathlon-ag2r-la-mondiale-new-sponsor-new-bike-new-success\"\/<\/a><\/div>
\n Road cycling<\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n \n

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale: New Sponsor, New Bike, New Success<\/span><\/h3>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/article>\n<\/div>\n

A noble reason, agreed, and it would be a shame if the team fell off the World Tour as a result. Which is why, I think, other teams are being amenable in their negotiations with Astana in the transfer market. In announcing Champoussin\u2019s move to the team on its website, Astana general manager Alexander Vinokourov went out of his way to thank the management of Ark\u00e9a\u2013B&B Hotels \u201cfor their open and professional approach during the negotiations for this transfer.\u201d<\/p>\n

And well he should, for the 26-year-old French rider had a very good 2024, winning the Giro della Toscana, placing second in the Circuito de Getxo and the Arctic Race of Norway, and finishing third in the Grand Prix de Wallonie.<\/a> Add his 681 points to those of Bettiol and Ulissi, and Astana would be sitting in 15th place, free and clear in World Tour paradise.<\/p>\n

Of course, there\u2019s no guarantee that these riders will duplicate their 2024 points hauls next year. But taken together, these new Astana riders form the nucleus of a pretty strong team, a team that next year will not be concentrating on the success of a single rider but looking to everyone to ride for the team. Rather than all for one, as in 2023 and 2024, 2025 will be the year of one for all.<\/p>\n

So, Astana\u2019s plan for 2025 is clear: no records, no superstars, no Grand Tour GC victories, no Classics wins. Just points, as many as possible, in whatever races they can be had. It should make for a nerve-wracking year for Vinokourov and his riders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The future looks precarious for the Kazakh cycling team, which sits 21st in UCI\u2019s World Team Rankings, with 6,383 points, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":197060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[4419,6962,8076,1057],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-197058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-alexander-vinokourov","tag-astana-qazaqstan","tag-nicola-conci","tag-wout-poels","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nAstana Qazaqstan Look to Transfer Market to Avoid Relegation - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The future looks precarious for the Kazakh cycling team, which sits 21st in UCI\u2019s World Team Rankings, with 6,383 points, the lowest of all the World Tour\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Astana Qazaqstan Look to Transfer Market to Avoid Relegation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The future looks precarious for the Kazakh cycling team, which sits 21st in UCI\u2019s World Team Rankings, with 6,383 points, the lowest of all the World Tour\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-23T12:35:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/10\/Astana-Qazaqstan-profimedia-0924321378-CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"990\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tereza\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/\",\"name\":\"Astana Qazaqstan Look to Transfer Market to Avoid Relegation - \u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/10\/Astana-Qazaqstan-profimedia-0924321378-CVR.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-10-23T12:35:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/50f01ecd18718d2333cf72e823c4f926\"},\"description\":\"The future looks precarious for the Kazakh cycling team, which sits 21st in UCI\u2019s World Team Rankings, with 6,383 points, the lowest of all the World Tour\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/10\/Astana-Qazaqstan-profimedia-0924321378-CVR.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/10\/Astana-Qazaqstan-profimedia-0924321378-CVR.webp\",\"width\":990,\"height\":660,\"caption\":\"Team Astana Qazaqstan\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Astana Qazaqstan Look to Transfer Market to Avoid Relegation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\",\"name\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"description\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine\",\"alternateName\":\"\u0160koda WLC\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/50f01ecd18718d2333cf72e823c4f926\",\"name\":\"tereza\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f9eb71be33845f0afabce3791bc1c58ecdb0a25c62964987e5dbcf7a20d2ec7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f9eb71be33845f0afabce3791bc1c58ecdb0a25c62964987e5dbcf7a20d2ec7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"tereza\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/tereza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Astana Qazaqstan Look to Transfer Market to Avoid Relegation - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"The future looks precarious for the Kazakh cycling team, which sits 21st in UCI\u2019s World Team Rankings, with 6,383 points, the lowest of all the World Tour","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Astana Qazaqstan Look to Transfer Market to Avoid Relegation","og_description":"The future looks precarious for the Kazakh cycling team, which sits 21st in UCI\u2019s World Team Rankings, with 6,383 points, the lowest of all the World Tour","og_url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/","og_site_name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","article_published_time":"2024-10-23T12:35:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":990,"height":660,"url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/10\/Astana-Qazaqstan-profimedia-0924321378-CVR.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"tereza","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Siegfried Mortkowitz","Est. reading time":"4"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/","name":"Astana Qazaqstan Look to Transfer Market to Avoid Relegation - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/10\/Astana-Qazaqstan-profimedia-0924321378-CVR.webp","datePublished":"2024-10-23T12:35:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/50f01ecd18718d2333cf72e823c4f926"},"description":"The future looks precarious for the Kazakh cycling team, which sits 21st in UCI\u2019s World Team Rankings, with 6,383 points, the lowest of all the World Tour","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/10\/Astana-Qazaqstan-profimedia-0924321378-CVR.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/10\/Astana-Qazaqstan-profimedia-0924321378-CVR.webp","width":990,"height":660,"caption":"Team Astana Qazaqstan"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/10\/23\/astana-qazaqstan-look-to-transfer-market-to-avoid-relegation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Astana Qazaqstan Look to Transfer Market to Avoid Relegation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/","name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine","alternateName":"\u0160koda WLC","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/50f01ecd18718d2333cf72e823c4f926","name":"tereza","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f9eb71be33845f0afabce3791bc1c58ecdb0a25c62964987e5dbcf7a20d2ec7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f9eb71be33845f0afabce3791bc1c58ecdb0a25c62964987e5dbcf7a20d2ec7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"tereza"},"url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/tereza\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197061,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197058\/revisions\/197061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197058"},{"taxonomy":"global-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global-categories?post=197058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}