European road season started in Spain

Last weekend Astana Qazaqstan Team started the European road season with two one-day races in Spain. Sports Director Alexandr Shefer summarised the performance of the team:

“On Saturday we competed in Classica Valencia which as expected finished with a bunch sprint. The first half of the race featured several climbs, which is why our goal was to protect our sprinter Gleb (Syritsa) until the very end and make him save as much energy as possible. The plan worked out and I am sure that Gleb can be proud of his teammates who demonstrated great mutual work during a race by chasing the breakaway and bringing him to the final in a good fresh condition. Fifth place as a result is of course not the result we were aiming for, however, Alessandro (Romele) who is our rider from the Development team and who was the last man in sprint for Gleb, did his best and he still has to learn about elite road racing. All in all, I am satisfied with the way the team showed itself, you also saw that, everyone did their best for our main goal.

 

GP Castallon was a different story, the team did not have a certain leader for this race and the goal was to start the season. We did not set high expectations for this start but wanted to kick off the season and test our legs in a competitive mode.

 

I am glad with the teamwork our riders showed and the individual performance of Anthon Charmig. Next, we have Saudi Arabia and Oman. I hope our riders got into the race mode and I look forward to the upcoming races”.