After two embarassing defeats, Astana returned to the top step of the podium at the Kazakh road race championships. Arman Kamyshev rode to a solo victory to claim his first national title ahead of Alexandre Sushemoin (Vino4ever) and Matvey Nikitin (Astana City).

Astana has been the dominant force in Kazakh cycling for a decade but in recent years they have had a hard time at their national championships. After the twam owned the road race title for several years, they were beaten by young riders in both 2014 and 2015. Last year's race even ended as a huge disappointment as the small Vino4ever team made it a clean sweep of the podium.

With the biggest Kazakh names all absent, the team again faced an uphill battle at this year's championships but the five-rider team managed to come away with the victory on the 185km course in the capital of Almaty. In the finale, the team had both Ruslan Tleubayev and Arman Kamyshe in a four-rider group that decided the race, with the pair being joined by youngste Alexandre Sushemoin and Matvey Nikitin, and it was Kamyshev who emerged as the strongest.

Kamyshev and Sushemoin escpaed and in the end, the Astana rider put 12 seconds into his companion. Nikitin arrived with a time loss of 31 seconds while Tleubavyev was 11 seconds further adrift.

Kamyshev is not part of the Astana team for the Tour de France so it is uncertain when he will make his debut in his new jersey.