The Kazak team had a successful 2012 season which was bookended by the Olympic road race victory by Alexander Vinokourov in London. The team underwent a change in personal and approach over the offseason with the acquisition of Vincenzo Nibali symbolising the shift to chasing grand tour victories. In 2008 the team tasted its first grand tour success when Alberto Contador won both the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta de España. He added the Tour de France to his palmares the next season but after he left, Astana’s focus had turned to classics and weeklong stage races.
Nibali’s arrival brought about a level of success the team had not enjoyed since Contador’s stint at the team. Nibali was victorious overall in three races and his pedigree covered over some of the cracks for the team in 2013. Kevin Seeldraeyers was the only other rider to record multiple wins for the season and this was disappointing feature among the highlights of the Giro and Vuelta.
While Vino was no longer riding for Astana, he was sitting in the car calling the shots. The team had tremendous success at the Ardennes last season with Enrico Gasparotto taking home Amstel Gold and Maxim Iglinsky broke away for victory at Liège–Bastogne–Liège. There was no repeat for either rider in 2013 with Gasparotto failing to record a wine and Iglinsky notching just two victories. These failures were not as evident with Nibali banking the wins.
The biggest casualty from the inclusion of Nibali and riders he brought with him from Liquigas was Roman Kreuziger. Kreuziger had an impressive season with Amstel Gold victory and fifth overall at the Tour riding for his new Saxo team. New arrival Jakob Fuglsang was another rider who failed to record a win but his seventh place at the Tour and three other top ten overall places was evidence of his potential after a frustrating spell at RadioShack-Leopard.
I wrote in the season review for Astana last year that ‘there is no doubt the team celebrated the feats in the Ardennes but come 2013 Astana is hungry for grand tour success and have prepared accordingly.’ The focus on grand tour’s paid off but there remained on the books a handful of riders who once again failed to perform. Particularly in one-day races.
There was not a single one-day victory in 2013 as it was the grand tours and stage races where Astana excelled. Andrea Guardini won at the Tour of Langkawi for the first victory for 2013. From February there were results in every month till August. Nibali won the Tirreno-Adriatico for consecutive seasons but did so without a stage win. He bettered Chris Froome and Alberto Contador which saw his odds for the Giro victory to be slashed.
He then went to the Giro del Trentino were he claimed his second win of the season ahead of Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins. He nabbed a stage win and reiterated he would be the rider to beat in May. He also won the race’s mountain classification and Fabio Aru was the best young rider. Aru’s performance raised eyebrows as to whether he could replicate his form and take the maglia bianca. To cap off a successful race Astana was the victor in the team classification.
At the Giro, Nibali took control of the race after Stage 8. He pulled on the maglia rosa and never relinquished it. He was second on Stage 14 behind Mauro Santambrogio who would soon test positive to EPO. However, Nibali is yet to be awarded the stage win. He decimated the peloton on the Stage 16 mountain ITT to extend his lead over second place Cadel Evans to over four minutes.
On the penultimate stage to Tre Cime di Lavaredo, the Sicilian rode away from his challenges to record his second win of the race as he was followed over the line by three Colombians. On arrival in Milan, Nibali was leading the points classification but victory to Mark Cavendish on the final stage saw the Italian lose the lead in the classification.
While Nibali was tearing up the Italian grand tour, Iglinsky took out Stage 4 at the Tour of Belgium. In June Astana was victorious in the team classification at the Tour de Suisse. Former maglia bianca winner, Kevin Seeldraeyers went to the Tour of Austria and returned with two stage wins to his name as well as the mountain and points classifications. To cap it off, the team classification was also captured.
Fuglsang had an impressive Tour de France with his first top ten grand tour result. The team was otherwise absent during July as injuries once again hampered the team. Janez Brajkovič was one the casualties as Fuglsang lost vital support for the high mountains. With the success at the Giro and Vuelta, Fuglsang was the shining light in July.
Due to his success, Nibali was flown to Kazakhstan to celebrate his victory. It was unclear whether the Vuelta was a serious goal or Nibali would use it to build form for the worlds in Italy. Ultimately, the partying after the Giro left the Italian undercooked for the Vuelta and uncertainly over which goal to chase further detracted from his tilt at the red jersey.
An unexpected victory in the Vuelta’s TTT saw Brajkovič take the first leaders jersey for 2013. He failed to defend the jersey but passed it onto Nibali. Having to defend the jersey so early in the race threw a few spanners into the works. In all, Nibali had three stints in the red jersey but couldn’t match efforts of Chris Horner who had highlighted the Vuelta as his season long goal.
Nibali lost the Vuelta by a mere 37 seconds and went down fighting. He crashed during the worlds but managed to come in fourth to cap off a personally successful season. It was evident that the Giro had been the primary goal and victory at the Vuelta would have been the cherry on top.
Season Highlights: The highlight for the season was the Giro victory and two weeks in the pink jersey. The Vuelta TTT success and having two riders were the red jersey was another highlight as was the Tour ride by Fuglsang which ensured Astana had exposure at all the grand tours.
Season Lowlights: The failure in the Ardennes as well as on-day races was rather disappointing. Astana back riders who challenge for the overall or in one-day classics. A lack of a genuine sprinter is not so much a worry, expect for when the team fails to record more than a handful of wins. Only having six riders record wins is rather abysmal at the World Tour level. Nibali was far and away the star rider of 2013 and the team will need to step it up a level next season.
Rider of the Season: Who else could it be besides Nibali? After his third place at last year’s Tour, Astana chose the right man to put their dollars behind. Soon to turn 29, the Italian is in the best years of his career and only a lack of support will hamper his development.
Signing of the Season: Besides Nibali, the signings of Aru and Fuglsang look to be long term investments. The success of Nibali should allow them to develop with a little less scrutiny. Fuglsang has shown what he can do but a few wins would be a nice addition to top ten places.
Disappointing rider of the Season: Once again there were high hopes for Brajkovič who has failed to deliver since his 2010 Critérium du Dauphiné victory. Injury hasn’t helped but his sole result of 2013 was the TTT victory at the Vuelta which is not enough. It appears that his successes are not reflective of his talent at the top level and 2014 will be final chance to see what he can do.
The seasons of Gasparotto and Iglinsky were equally disappointing and both will want to improve next season. As part of the classics squad, both were not affected negatively by Nibali’s arrival and multiple wins each is a minimum.
2014 Prospects: Nibali has turned his attention to the Tour de France in 2014 and the announcement of the route will see whether it is advantageous to the Italian making a grand tour treble. Former under-23 world champion Alexey Lutsenko will have a season at the top level under his belt as well as Tour experience. The weight on his shoulders will be increased next season and hopefully he rises to the challenge.
Fuglsang needs to record a few more wins and should be chasing week long stage races as he builds for either the Giro or Vuelta. The addition of Lieuwe Westra will add some class and support. As will Mikel Landa while the decision to sign Franco Pellizotti is dumbfounding.
Next season looks like being another success and little change in team personal and more than a handful of riders who need to secure contracts will be far hungrier to stand atop the podium in 2014.
UCI Points: 5th ranked team with 1045 points: Nibali (474), Fuglsang (160), Kangert(116), Gasparotto (115), Hryvko (70)
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