Astana Cycling Team

Fans waiting at hotel for riders' return from stage

Hello my friends from Astanafans and cycling lovers,

We joined the Vuelta yesterday as it entered the province of Andalusia.
Like on the Giro d’Italia, the atmosphere on the Vuelta a España is cool and relaxed, nothing compared to the Tour de France stressful commercial aspect, and the Spanish are easygoing people. So the Vuelta is an enjoyable three-week race.

In this period of the year, specially in Andalusia, it gets really very hot during the day, and the riders have a hard time fighting against the heat, and make sure they are sufficiently hydrated.

Blandine Roquelet

As I said above, we joined the Vuelta yesterday in Baza, departure of the 4th stage, and as soon as the riders were on their way, we followed the Astana bus all the way up to the Sierra Nevada main summit in Monachil, where we would witness, almost five hours later, a spectacular mountain-top finish.

On the way to Sierra Nevada

View from the summit of Sierra Nevada

We passed the beautiful city of Grenada, homeland of Spain’s most famous poet, Federico García Lorca, who was shot in 1936, in the first days of the (in)famous Spanish Civil war.

One kilometer to go to summit

What a pleasure it is for us each time to see again our Astana team friends, and among the staff: mechanics José Gil Rodriguez and Javier Lopez, soigneurs Sergey Lavrenenko, Oscar Saturni, David Vargas, and Dmitriy Andryuchshenko, team doctor Marco Pallini, sports directors Guiseppe Martinelli and Guido Bontempi, and this time be introduced to Dr. Aidar Makhmetov, commercial director of Astana team, who kindly invited us to dinner with the team since we are sharing the same hotel for one overnight stop.

Josep Jufre

But the treat is spending some time with charming Blandine Roquelet, a girl who is always in a good mood, full of energy, and smiling. As you certainly know, Blandine, who drives one of the Astana team cars, had a crash at the beginning of the Giro which entailed a broken wrist with the necessity of wearing a plaster cast for several weeks. But she carried on driving the team car to the end of the Giro, and then she also did the Tour de France, and is now on the Vuelta, although her presence here was not in her original planning. But Blandine loves her job and is always ready for a new adventure, even is she has to shorten her personal holidays.

Vuelta Village in Monachil

It’s a Spanish rider, Daniel Moreno, who won the Sierra Nevada arrival stage, a great joy for all the local Spanish supporters gathered in the little wintersport resort of Monachil, which is almost empty in the summer although the landscape and the view over the valley down below is breathtaking. French champion, the popular Sylvian Chavanel, now leads the general classification and wears the red jersey.

Arrival point

Although I’m not at all a chauvinist, I must admit I am very happy for Sylvian.
Astana’s Fredrik Kessiakoff is now in the top ten and the team leader. So it’s a good result for the day.

Andrey Mizurov

Tomorrow, back to Malaga to help prepare the start of a new school year of our grand children.

So long dear friends of Astanafans, till next time!

With Andrey Mizurov

With Aidar and Blandine

Evgeny Petrov

Robert Kiserlovksi and Enrico Gasparotto

Guiseppe Martinelli and Guido Bontempi

Evgeny Petrov

Josep Jufre

Fredrik Kessiakoff

Andrey Kashechkin

Tanel Kangert

Enrico Gasparotto and Tanel Kangert signing for kids at hotel