Astana, a victory to stay in the WorldTour

Total miracle of winekurov, while other squads are complicated. Astana, a victory to stay in the WorldTour

Dream week

7 days of dream were the ones that had Astana last week: 4 stages in the Turkey Tour with Lev Gonov, Wout Poels, Harold Martín López and Matteo Malucelli; 1-2 in the General with Poels and López and 1-2 at the Lotto Farmenne Ardenne Classic on Sunday with Max Kanter and Cees Bol

This is how that distance that seemed impossible was reduced to a minimum. 4670 points separated Astana from the 18th position of the UCI teams, the last one that can qualify for a WorldTour license for the next 2026-2028 cycle. Now the distance is only 160 points. In 130 days 96.6% of the deficit was reduced. The great performance of Astana is also reflected whether we only take into account the points of this year: there the Astana is third, ahead of other Top teams and only UAE and Lidl-Trek.

It is imminent

Did two whole years focusing on Mark Cavendish’s 35th victory on the Tour de France was a mistake? Possibly, although with Monday’s diary, it could have been a factor to attract the interest of XDS, the Chinese bicycle brand that made a strong investment in the team for this year, one of its many success factors.

It is imminent that Astana manages to enter among the top 18 at the detriment of the picnic-postnl. Will there be a reaction of the Dutch team? It does not seem to have been the case so far. The bet is in adding points in the turn with Romain Bardet- who will retire in just over a month- and Max Poole. But Picnic will still have chances of fighting for a place against Cofidis, which has barely 519 points and lights candles so that Milan Fettin continues to tend great performances in the Sprint (he will be on the turn) and so that Alex Aranburu continues to hunt races and stages.

Everything is still open. There could even be surprises: Lotto does not get a sponsor, will he reject his promotion to WorldTour who already has guaranteed? Will automatic invitations be increased next year?

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