2011 Astana season

2011 roster

Ages as of January 1, 2011.

;Riders who joined the team for the 2011 season

;Riders who left the team during or after the 2010 season

One-day races

Spring classics

The squad was not competitive at the first three monument races in the spring season, coming just 66th in Milan–San Remo,{{cite web |access-date=2011-10-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130320160139/http://www.cyclingnews.com/milan-san-remo/results |archive-date=2013-03-20 |access-date=2011-10-26 |access-date=2011-10-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410122654/http://www.cyclingnews.com/paris-roubaix/results |archive-date=2013-04-10 |access-date=2011-10-30

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The team's two leaders Vinokourov and Kreuziger rode strongly at the Ardennes classics. Vinokourov took fourth in La Flèche Wallonne, six seconds back of winner Philippe Gilbert.{{cite web |access-date=2011-04-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130420164422/http://www.cyclingnews.com/la-fleche-wallonne/results |archive-date=2013-04-20 |access-date=2011-04-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110164412/http://www.cyclingnews.com/liege-bastogne-liege/results |archive-date=2012-01-10

Fall races

Gasparotto turned in a fourth place ride at Tre Valli Varesine, which matched the team's best single-day result of the season, along with the performances of Kreuziger and Vinokourov from earlier in the season.{{cite web |access-date=2011-10-30

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The team also sent squads to the Clásica de San Sebastián, the GP Ouest-France, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, the Coppa Sabatini, the Giro dell'Emilia, the GP Bruno Beghelli, the Giro di Lombardia, the Chrono des Nations, and the Japan Cup, but finished no higher than 17th in any of these races.

Stage races

Di Gregorio took the team's first win of the season, at Paris–Nice, winning a windy, rainy stage 7 into Sophia Antipolis. |access-date=2011-03-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110315075820/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/69th-paris-nice-his/stage-7/results |archive-date=2011-03-15 |url-status=dead Vinokourov had targeted this stage, since it fell on the anniversary of the death of his friend Andrei Kivilev in the 2003 race. |access-date=2011-03-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110316173218/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/69th-paris-nice-his/stage-8/results |archive-date=2011-03-16 |url-status=dead It was also during this stage that Kiserlovski slid and crashed on a slippery downhill, and skidded underneath a parked truck. It took several minutes to safely extricate him, and after needing eight stitches to sew up his wounds, he did not start the final stage.{{cite web |access-date=2011-03-17 |access-date=2011-04-11 |access-date=2011-04-26

Later in April, the team took two wins at two concurrent events. In stage 2 at the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey, Valentin took his first win of the season in a field sprint, besting Alessandro Petacchi at the finish. The victory made the younger Iglinsky the race leader for a day before he ceded it to 's Manuel Belletti, winner of stage 3.{{cite web |access-date=2011-05-01 |access-date=2011-05-01 |access-date=2011-05-02 |access-date=2011-05-02

|access-date=2011-05-02 |access-date=2011-05-01 |access-date=2011-05-01 |access-date=2011-05-01 |access-date=2011-10-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103171602/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/criterium-du-dauphine-upt/prologue/results |archive-date=2011-11-03 |url-status=dead |access-date=2011-10-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103170859/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/criterium-du-dauphine-upt/stage-1/results |archive-date=2011-11-03 |url-status=dead He held the jersey for a second day before losing it in the stage 3 time trial, a considerably longer course than the prologue. He finished a distant 14th, having difficulty on the technical descents on the course, and slipped to fourth overall.{{cite web |access-date = 2011-10-30 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111103171745/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/criterium-du-dauphine-upt/stage-3/results |archive-date = 2011-11-03 |url-status = dead

|access-date=2011-10-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103170221/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/criterium-du-dauphine-upt/stage-6/results |archive-date=2011-11-03 |url-status=dead |access-date = 2011-10-30 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111103170717/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/criterium-du-dauphine-upt/stage-7/results |archive-date = 2011-11-03 |url-status = dead

The team had a very successful Tour of Austria, a race concurrent to the Tour de France. Kessiakoff rode to a strong stage 2 win on a summit finish at Kitzbüheler Horn. On a day where the composition of the leading group changed several times over rolling terrain, Kessiakoff was the first rider to attack out of the main peloton and surpassed all riders ahead of him to finish alone atop the 1670 m summit. A former mountain bike veteran, this solo ride was Kessiakoff's first career road win in his third year in the discipline.{{cite web |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30

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The team also sent squads to the Tour Down Under, the Tour of Qatar, the Tour of Oman, the Volta ao Algarve, the Giro di Sardegna, Tirreno–Adriatico, the Volta a Catalunya, the Tour of Belgium, the Tour de Suisse, the Eneco Tour, and the Tour de l'Ain, but did not have a stage win, classification win, or podium finish in any of them.

Grand Tours

Giro d'Italia

Astana's leader for the Giro was Kreuziger. Though he had ridden six previous Grand Tours and finished in the top ten at the Tour de France twice, this was his first time riding the Giro, as his former team always inevitably had someone else in mind for leadership at the Italian tour. It was also the first time Kreuziger had ridden as the unquestioned leader in a Grand Tour. Both leadership and access to the Giro were central to Kreuziger's signing with Astana in the offseason.{{cite web |access-date=2011-10-29 |access-date=2011-10-29

The team began the Giro with a poor team time trial, finishing 17th of 23 teams, immediately putting Kreuziger 50 seconds off the race lead.{{cite web |access-date=2011-10-29 |access-date=2011-10-29 |access-date=2011-10-29 |access-date=2011-10-29 |access-date=2011-05-18 |access-date=2011-05-18 |access-date=2011-10-29

Kreuziger, along with most of the race's best riders, was again out-distanced by Contador on the Grossglockner, the next summit finish. He finished sixth on the day, losing over a minute and a half. Attrition to other riders meant he actually moved up to fifth overall, though he was three and a half minutes down on Contador, a time gap unlikely to be recouped.{{cite web |access-date=2011-10-29 |access-date=2011-10-29 |access-date=2011-10-29 |access-date=2011-10-29

The team took their one-stage win in stage 19. Tiralongo, perhaps Kreuziger's top support rider, attacked out of the leading group 7 km, all uphill, from the finish in Macugnaga. After other riders tried to bridge up to him but never made it all the way, Contador easily made his way to the front of the race and rode beside Tiralongo for several moments. They shared a few words, and Contador patted the veteran Italian on the back as he encouraged him to take the stage win himself. Tiralongo did so, the first race win of his 12-year career.{{cite web |access-date=2011-05-31 |access-date=2011-05-31 |access-date=2011-05-31 |access-date=2011-10-29

Tour de France

Vinokourov led the Astana squad at the Tour de France. Entering 2011, he had thought it to be his final season as an active competitor, and his main goal for the year was to wear the yellow jersey at some time during the Tour.{{cite news |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30

The squad turned in a decent ride in the stage 2 team time trial, finishing ninth of 22 teams. The result installed Vinokourov into 27th place, 32 seconds off the race lead.{{cite web |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30

The team's fortunes took a dramatic turn the next day. On the same day that breakaway riders Flecha and Johnny Hoogerland were sideswiped by a car at the front of the race, Vinokourov crashed along with Jurgen Van den Broeck, Andreas Klöden, and David Zabriskie, all of whom eventually left the race due to their injuries. Vinokourov's injuries were quite clearly serious immediately – he could not walk back to the road from which he fell, needing to be held up by Di Gregorio and Grivko. He was revealed to have sustained a broken right femur. Fofonov also crashed, witnessing what took place from his position directly behind Vinokourov. He described that the race had been extremely fast, and the road wet, with Hushovd and a rider from taking a line around a left-hand curve that resulted in those behind taking it much too widely and falling off the road.{{cite web |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30

Despite Vinokourov's hopes upon crashing out of the race that the squad would continue to be combative, they did not attain any noteworthy results over the remainder of the Tour. Grivko and Fofonov took top-ten stage placings from breakaways in stages 16 and 17, but did not come close to winning either day, finishing tenth and sixth respectively and over a minute off the winner's time both days.{{cite web |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30

Vuelta a España

Kashechkin, who previously rode for Astana before being suspended following a positive doping test at the 2007 Tour de France,{{cite web |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30

Astana turned in their strongest team time trial performance in the Vuelta, finishing fourth of the 22 teams.{{cite web |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103151926/http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-3/results |archive-date=2011-11-03 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120824204834/http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-5/results |archive-date=2012-08-24 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30

Kessiakoff moved into his highest overall position after stage 12, occupying third overall just nine seconds behind the race leader.{{cite web |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |access-date=2011-10-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130102215145/http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-21/results |archive-date=2013-01-02

Season victories

Footnotes

References

References

1. "UCI Rankings".
2. Kröner, Hedwig. (29 January 2011). "Two Leaders Spearhead Reshuffled Astana".
3. Ryan, Barry. (24 August 2011). "Astana reduces roster thanks to Kireyev retirement".
4. Stokes, Shane. (12 November 2010). "Astana's 2011 lineup finalised, will get together in Italy at the end of November". Velonation.
5. Westemeyer, Susan. (7 September 2010). "Transfer news: Vandborg back to Saxo Bank, Stamsnijder on the move".
6. (24 August 2010). "Petrov moves to Astana".
7. (29 September 2010). "Kessiakoff leaves Garmin for Astana".
8. Cossins, peter. (30 July 2010). "Astana start their post-Contador rebuild".
9. (16 August 2010). "Kreuziger signs with Astana".
10. Haake, Bjorn. (22 September 2010). "Mirco Lorenzetto to Astana for 2011". Velonation.
11. Westemeyer, Susan. (30 October 2010). "Vaitkus returns to Astana for 2011".
12. (3 August 2010). "Contador to ride with Riis in 2011".
13. Farrand, Stephen. (11 December 2010). "Scott Davis retires".
14. Atkins, Ben. (4 October 2010). "Team Geox-TMC signs David De la Fuente and confirms Giampaolo Cheula". Velonation.
15. (12 August 2010). "Saxo Bank-SunGard signs Contador's top Spaniards".
16. Haake, Bjorn. (11 December 2010). "Pereiro to continue his professional career – as soccer player". Velonation.