Astana Pro Team have announce the extension of contracts with three current Kazakh riders of the team.

Alexey Lutsenko, a young talented rider, has signed a two-year contract with the team. A former U23 World Champion, he has been with the Astana team since 2013. During this time, he has won stages of Tour of Denmark (2014), Tour of Switzerland (2015), and Paris-Nice (2016). is a double winner of the Tour of Almaty and this year he also finished on the podium in Driedaagse van De Panne-Koksijde. During his yet short career, Lutsenko has started three Grand Tours, the Tour De France (2013, 2016) and the Vuelta a Espana (2014).

“Alexey is a young rider with a big potential, he makes the future of Kazakhstan Cycling. We are encouraging him to be a real strong rider, who makes the victories for the team. Quite recently, he was a little unlucky right before the Olympic Games. I believe, that taking into account the situation we all saw on Saturday, Alexey could have fought for the medal. Anyway, he still has it all ahead. The young and talented rider, who, I think, will make himself prepared for the end of the season after his trauma," General manager Alexandr Vinokurov commented.

Daniil Fominykh has signed a one year contract with the team. He has been in the professional Astana team since 2014. Asian ITT champion in 2013, Kazakhstan National champion 2014, winner of the stage of Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos (TTT), Daniil Fominykh finished on the podium in the overall ranking at Tour of Qinghai Lake in 2013. In the beginning of this season he got a serious injury after a serious crash at Paris-Nice stage and  he had to recover after the surgeries for a big part of the season.

“Fominykh is a young and progressive rider. In the beginning of the season he was quite unlucky due to the crash at Paris-Nice, but he has recovered well and has started racing aain. He already has the first victory as a professional - it was the team time trial in Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos. I’m very happy for him; he works well and easily got adjusted to the team. I think he is the rider, who can both make his best for the team and achieve his personal results," Vinokurov continued.

A one-year contract has also been signed by an experienced Kazakhstan rider, triple champion of Kazakhstan, champion of Asia (2014) Dmitry Gruzdev. The thirty-year old rider has been a member of Kazakhstan’s Astana team since 2011, when he came to the team as a trainee after a successful participation in Tour of Qinghai Lake (2nd place in the overall ranking). Among the best personal results, there are two victories in Tour of Hainan stages (2008, 2012) and the overall victory in 2012, a stage win in the Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos (TTT, 2016). Over the past years he has been a strong part of the team for Grand-tours like the Giro d ’Italia (2013) and Tour De France (2014, 2015), two of which were won by Vincenzo Nibali, the captain of the team.

“Gruzdev is an active champion of Kazakhstan. I think he will be able to make us happy with his victories until the end of the season. Quite recently we saw how he rode a couple of stages wearing a leaders jersey in Vuelta Ciclista a Burgos. I believe, this gave him power for the end of the season, where he will be preparing for the world championships. We hope to see him in Qatar among the Top 10 riders or standing on the podium in the ITT,” Alexandr Vinokurov concluded.