Kazakh champion Alexey Lutsenko stays with Astana Premier Tech

The Kazakh Champion and Tour de France stage winner, Alexey Lutsenko has extended his contract with the Kazakh-Canadian team for the upcoming season, rounding out Astana – Premier Tech’s final 31-rider roster for the 2021 season.

Alongside the new additions to the team, Canadian Steve Bauer, Olympic medalist and Tour de France stage winner, and former Kazakh rider Dmitriy Muravyev join the team as Sports Directors.

The Kazakh Champion Alexey Lutsenko stays with the team for another year

I think, I have improved significantly over the last few years and achieved many great results, which have been my goals for many years. Despite a difficult year, I still had a good season. Of course, the stage win at the Tour de France was the best moment. I am happy that the team wants to continue our journey. I am looking forward to achieving new goals and developing further as a rider. I will stay another year with this team, which makes me really happy. The team believes in me and shares my visions and goals.

The team confirms its final roster consisting of 31 riders

Alex ARANBURU; Samuele BATTISTELLA; Manuele BOARO; Gleb BRUSSENSKIY; Stefan DE BOD; Rodrigo CONTRERAS; Yevgeniy FEDOROV; Fabio FELLINE; Omar FRAILE; Jakob FUGLSANG; Yevgeniy GIDICH; Jonas GREGAARD WILSLY; Dmitriy GRUZDEV; Hugo HOULE; Gorka IZAGIRRE; Ion IZAGIRRE; Merhawi KUDUS; Alexey LUTSENKO; Davide MARTINELLI; Yuriy NATAROV; Benjamin PERRY; Andrea PICCOLO; Vadim PRONSKIY; Oscar RODRIGUEZ; Javier ROMO; Luis Leon SANCHEZ; Matteo SOBRERO; Nikita STALNOV; Harold TEJADA; Aleksandr VLASOV; Artyom ZAKHAROV.

As well as Sport Directors Dmitriy Fofonov, Bruno Cenghialta, Giuseppe Martinelli, Stefano Zanini and Sergey Yakovlev, two new faces will join Astana – Premier Tech. Canadian Steve Bauer, Olympic medalist and Tour de France stage winner, will join Astana – Premier Tech through 2021 to add his knowledge and value to the UCI WorldTeam in his role of a Sports Director as well as Kazakh and former rider Dmitriy Muravyev. 

Steve Bauer, who will join as Sports Director:

I am very happy with the opportunity to join Astana – Premier Tech. The change will begin the next chapter for me, working with a new group of management, staff and riders. As a Canadian, it is especially exciting to have Premier Tech as a co-title sponsor of the team in 2021. I look forward to meeting the team at January camp and I am motivated to work hard with everyone to achieve the sporting goals that will be set out.

Alongside Steve Bauer, former rider Dmitriy Muravyev also joins the team as Sports Director:

I ended my professional career as a rider here and now I return as a Sports Director, which makes me really happy. I will use my knowledge and experience in my new work but I am also ready to absorb new things and continue to learn in order to share what I already know and what I will learn with the trainers, who are working in Kazakhstan. I am proud to start this new chapter in my career with this amazing project, Astana – Premier Tech, and hope that we will achieve great results together with our riders.

Managing Director, Yana Seel:

We are very glad about this great line-up of riders and Sports Directors and I’m sure we will proudly represent Kazakhstan and our cosponsor Premier Tech in 2021. It’s important to mention that we kept 9 Kazakh riders in our roster and added another Canadian rider next to Hugo Houle, which is important for the projects we will start for the youth in Kazakhstan and Canada. We are ready to start making a difference in the world with these projects, while we keep entertaining cycling fans with our attractive way of racing. Last but not least, I really want to thank the riders who are leaving us, Miguel Angel Lopez, Laurens De Vreese, Zhandos Bizhigitov, Daniil Fominykh and Hernando Bohorquez, as well as our two Sports Directors Alexandr Shefer and Dmitri Sedoun. All of them did amazing work for the team over the years and gave it their all every day. We want to thank them for everything and wish all of them the best of luck for their future.

General Manager, Alexandr Vinokurov:

I think we did a great job in signing new talents and extending with strong riders that proved themselves in our team in the past years. Our team is known for its attractive way of racing and I’m sure with this roster, we are able to compete on the highest level once again.