Pro Team Astana / 2011 season
This article lists the successes and team of the Astana cycling team in the 2011 season .
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After the departure of Captain Contador and his Spanish helpers to Saxo Bank SunGard , the young Italian Mirko Selvaggi (to Vacansoleil-DCM ) and the Spaniard David de la Fuente (to Geox-TMC ) also left the Kazakh team after the 2010 season . Scott Davis , Valeri Dmitrijew and the former Tour winner Óscar Pereiro ended their careers, and Bolat Rajimbekow also stopped driving for Astana in 2011. The French Rémy Di Gregorio from FDJ , who is described as one of the greatest climbing talents in France, but had fallen out with FDJ team manager Marc Madiot , and Fredrik Kessiakoff were new . The Swede, who only became a professional cyclist at the age of 29, had performed well in his first season in 2010, especially in mountainous terrain, but received no new contract with Garmin-Transitions, which merged with the Cérvelo team. Of Liquigas-Doimo met Robert Kišerlovski and Roman Kreuziger for Equipe. The Croatian Kiserlovski had kept up well with the favorites at the 2010 Giro d'Italia in the mountains and wore the jersey of the best young rider. The also still young Kreuziger, a Czech, was unable to assert himself despite his skills as a tour driver at Liquigas due to the strong competition from Giro winner Ivan Basso and Vuelta-a-Espana winner Vincenzo Nibali . An experienced player was signed with the Russian Jewgeni Petrow , while the Lithuanian Tomas Vaitkus returned after a year with the RadioShack team. In addition to the sprinter and cobblestone specialist, the Italians Mirco Lorenzetto , Francesco Masciarelli as well as the young Australian Simon Clarke and the Estonian Tanel Kangert , who had previously competed as an amateur, moved to Kazakhstan.
Without the most successful man in recent years, Alberto Contador, the 2011 team will focus primarily on Alexander Vinokurov. The Kazakhs declared a good result in the Tour de France as a personal goal. The team should support him in this. Vinokourov also stated that 2011 will be his last year as a professional. Behind Vinokurov, newcomer Roman Kreuziger is to be built up as a new captain for the big tours, and other young and talented drivers such as the newcomers Di Gregorio and Kiserlovski are to develop into winning drivers. Overall, the team has been younger than in 2010.
Season course
At the end of November 2010, Astana was confirmed by the UCI World Cycling Federation as a ProTeam, which has automatic starting rights in the world's most important competitions. The team contested the first race in 2011 after a training camp in Montecatini Terme, Italy (December 2010) in January at the Tour Down Under , which marked the start of the UCI World Tour 2011 . There Allan Davis , who had won this race in 2009, led the seven-man team, while the rest of the squad stayed in another training camp in Calp , Spain . In the fight for the overall victory, Davis could not intervene. With a tenth, eighth and sixth stage position and ninth place in the overall standings, he at least got the first results for the Kazakh ProTeam.
In February, a delegation of the team trained with Giro captain Kreuziger on the Etna volcano in Italy, which is on the program for this year's Giro d'Italia . Meanwhile, seven Astana professionals drove on the Qatar tour . In the Arabian Gulf, the newcomers Mirco Lorenzetto (seventh on the second stage) and Tomas Vaitkus (ninth in the prologue, eighth on the fourth and seventh on the last stage) were able to achieve further top ten results for the team. An attack by the Australian Simon Clarke on the third part of the day from a breakaway group was not rewarded, the young driver was caught up with a kilometer from the finish. Alexander Vinokourov started his final season as a professional cyclist in the following Tour of Oman . The leader of the eight-man Astana squad finished twelfth overall. The only top ten placement in Oman was achieved by Simon Clarke in ninth place in the second stage. On the first three stages, Estonian Tanel Kangert was also in the top ten of the overall standings thanks to several time bonuses that he got as an outlier on the first stage of the day. He finished the tour on 18th.
The new co-captain Roman Kreuziger, however, began his season with the Algarve Tour . In Portugal , the Czech finished twentieth overall in his first race for his new team. On the third stage, the most difficult section of the race, Kreuziger was in the group of favorites and finished eighth. The day before, Kazakhstani Dmitri Fofonow had achieved a top ten result when he sprinted to tenth place. On the fifth section, Allan Davis then achieved fifth place in the mass sprint. In the final individual time trial, Kreuziger missed a good place in the overall ranking because of a wheel change due to a defect during the race. So the Swede Fredrik Kessiakoff was 18th, the best placed driver of the eight-man team in the Algarve. An eight-man delegation from Astana also took part in the Giro di Sardegna . The Croatian arrival Robert Kišerlovski showed strong performances. The former Liquigas rider finished the first mountain arrival on Monte Ortobe in eighth place, and one day later he showed his climbing skills again in ninth place. Even on the difficult last stage of the tour, Kiserlovski showed good early form in sixth and finished the race in seventh overall. The next day, the Astana team of the Tour of Sardinia also took part in the Classica Sarda , a one-day race in Sardinia . With Paolo Tiralongo and Robert Kišerlovski, only two drivers crossed the finish line. With seventh place, Kiserlovski was able to achieve a good result again.
In March the team competed in the Paris-Nice World Tour race . The team's captain should be Alexandre Vinokourov , who was aiming for a stage win. For him, his last Paris-Nice race was quite a special race, as he had won the "Drive to the Sun" twice and his star had risen there, but in 2003 he lost his Kazakh friend Andrei Kivilev after a fatal fall in the same competition . Roman Kreuziger and Robert Kišerlovski should conquer good positions in the overall ranking for the eight-member selection. On the second stage, Tomas Vaitkus attempted an attack 15 kilometers from the finish and shortly afterwards Vinokourov, which was not crowned with success. After all, Vaitkus reached ninth place in the final mass sprint, although he almost fell. A day later, the Lithuanian sprinted to eleventh place. On the fourth leg of the day, the Frenchman Rémy Di Gregorio and four other drivers entered a breakaway group shortly after the start. The maximum lead of more than five minutes shrank, but the group still crossed the finish line thirteen seconds before the approaching field. In the sprint, however, Di Gregorio had no chance against day winner Thomas Voeckler and was fourth. The following day, a memory sprint was run for Kivilev, in which Vinokourov took part but did not win. Later on the difficult stage, "Vino" set pace on the final climb of the first category for Kreuziger and Di Gregorio, who attacked but were overtaken by the other favorites. In the end, however, it was Robert Kišerlovski who was able to gain a lead with other favorites like Tony Martin . The Croatian finished sixth in the sprint of the leading group and took over the white jersey of the best young driver. In the following individual time trial, Vinokourov was the best Astana man in eleventh place before finally winning his first win of the season on the seventh stage. It was the young French Rémy Di Gregorio who attacked 13 kilometers from the finish of the rainy section and saved a narrow lead over the group of favorites at the finish, barely avoiding a fall on the slippery roads twice. For the Frenchman, who was divorced from his old FDJ team, it was also the first professional victory. Vinokourov and Kiserlovski were less lucky. While the Kazakhs fell during a departure, the Croat slipped under a truck and had to be taken to a hospital, from which he could be discharged the next day without serious injuries. On the same day, the Swede Fredrik Kessiakoff had to give up the race. After an unsuccessful attack, Vinokourov also gave up the race on the last stage, which was also wet. There Tomas Vaitkus secured tenth place in a sprint of a chasing group on the Promenade des Anglais of Nice .
Astana also had an eight-man delegation at Tirreno-Adriatico . In the team time trial it was only enough for 14th place. In the mass sprint of the second section, Mirco Lorenzetto ensured a top ten result with seventh place. In the following mountainous stages, it was the young Australian Simon Clarke who was in the group of favorites and finally came 15th in the overall standings. The team was unable to achieve any other results.
The captain for the one-day classic Milan-Sanremo was Allan Davis , who had already finished second and fourth in the "Classicissima". But at the 102nd edition of the cycling monument, Davis had bad luck with two falls. He and most of his teammates were left behind, like other favorites such as Mark Cavendish and last year's winner Óscar Freire .
The next date on the program was the 100th edition of the Tour of Catalonia . On the first stage around Lloret de Mar , the Italian climber Paolo Tiralongo finished seventh in the sprint of the field, which reached the goal 28 seconds behind the runaway Gatis Smukulis . In addition, Josep Jufré was able to slip on the jersey of the best Catalan driver for two days. On the second part of the day, a member of the eight-person Astana delegation was able to make it into the top ten: Valentin Iglinskiy sprinted to ninth place. On the fifth stage, Francesco Masciarelli was represented in the breakaway group of the day, which was placed five kilometers before the finish line.
Success in the UCI World Tour
| date | run | driver |
|---|---|---|
| March 12th |
 7th stage Paris – Nice
|
Rémy Di Gregorio
|
| April 6th |
 3rd stage Vuelta al País Vasco
|
 Alexander Vinokurov
|
| April 29 |
 3rd stage Tour de Romandie
|
Alexander Vinokurov
|
| 28th of May |
 19th stage of the Giro d'Italia
|
Paolo Tiralongo
|
Success in the UCI Asia Tour
| date | run | Cat. | driver |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 26th |
Kazakh championship - road racing
|
CN |
Andrei Misurov
|
| October 27 |
 8th stage Tour of Hainan
|
2.HC |
Valentin Iglinski
|
| 20.-27. October |
Overall Tour of Hainan
|
2.HC |
Valentin Iglinski
|
Success in the UCI Europe Tour
| date | run | Cat. | driver |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 22 |
4th stage Giro del Trentino
|
2.HC |
 Roman Kreuziger
|
| April 25 |
 2nd stage of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey
|
2.HC |
Valentin Iglinski
|
| July 4th |
 2nd stage tour of Austria
|
2.HC |
 Fredrik Kessiakoff
|
| 3rd - 10th July |
Overall ranking of the Tour of Austria
|
2.HC |
Fredrik Kessiakoff
|
Disposals - additions
| Accesses | Team 2010 | Departures | Team 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Rémy Di Gregorio
|
Française des Jeux |
Alberto Contador
|
Saxo Bank-SunGard |
|
Fredrik Kessiakoff
|
Garmin transitions |
Jesús Hernández
|
Saxo Bank-SunGard |
|
Mirco Lorenzetto
|
Lampre-Farnese Vini |
Daniel Navarro
|
Saxo Bank-SunGard |
 Robert Kišerlovski
|
Liquigas-Doimo |
Benjamin Noval
|
Saxo Bank-SunGard |
|
Roman Kreuziger
|
Liquigas-Doimo |
Mirko Selvaggi
|
Vacansoleil DCM |
 Yevgeny Petrov
|
Team Katusha |
David de la Fuente
|
Geox-TMC |
 Tomas Vaitkus
|
Team RadioShack |
 Scott Davis
|
End of career |
|
Francesco Masciarelli
|
Acqua & Sapone-D'Angelo & Antenucci |
Valery Dmitriev
|
End of career |
|
Simon Clarke
|
ISD Neri |
Óscar Pereiro
|
End of career |
 Tanel Kangert
|
CC Villeneuve Saint-Germain |
Bolat Rajimbekow
|
Unknown |
|
Andrei Misurow (from May 14th) |
Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team |
Roman Kirejew (until August 22) |
End of career |
|
Andrei Kaschetschkin (from August 1st) |
Lampre ISD |
team
shirt
2011
