Astana Cycling Team

Today Kazakhstani rider Maxim Iglinsky held a conference about his win in Liege Bastogne Liege and met with his fans and journalists.

Liege Bastogne Liege:
Maxim told how in the very last kilometers of the race he made it in the break with Joaquim Rodriguez. Katyusha rider asked him to hold his tempo down a little and race for the 2nd and 3d places (at the moment they only one ahead of them was Nibali from "Liquigas"). While Maxim was just about to ask Rodriguez the same, he understood that this was a moment of weakness and remembering Vinokourov's advices (Alexandre called him personally this very same morning) attacked.

The attack was successful and Spanish rider was dropped. Then Maxim raced as fast as he could to protect his 2nd place as he thought at the moment, but he managed to do much more -- he caught up to race leader, Nibali. When Nibali looked back and saw Iglinsky coming up, Maxim saw shock in his eyes and felt that he is breakable.

Even if he was nearly exhausted himself after chasing up to Nibali, he stood up and attacked once more and again. Nibali was dropped and he won the race. Teammate Enrico Gasparotto have won the sprint for the 3d place after Nibali and completed Astana's extraordinary Ardennes classic campaign.

Future plans:
Maxim will attend opening of Alexandre Vinokourov's bike shop later in Almaty. Then he will compete in Tour of Belgium in late May. After that he plans to race Dauphiné Libéré and Tour De France aiming for individual stages.

Also, as classics rider he is prioritizing Olympic group race in London and World Championship race. WC race is especially fitting for him, but even the flat London route has some hills and breakaway opportunities, Maxim said.

In the end Maxim wanted to encourage other Kazakhstani riders to believe in themselves, work hard and achieve world class results.