Breschel, Bilbao among new signings for Astana
Oct 05 2016 05:57 pm CET
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDSKazakh WorldTour formation Astana has unveiled four new names for its 2017 roster: Matti Breschel, Pello Bilbao, Zhandos Bizhigitov and Sergey Chernetskiy.
Breschel (32), is the fourth Danish rider to join Astana. "We believe that Breschel as a rider with solid experience will be of great help to Valgren at the spring classics in the Ardennes, which he is well aware of. Being the fourth Danish rider in the team, the rider is very motivated to compete for our team and help his countryman to vie for results in big races," said General Manager Alexander Vinokourov.
26-year-old Bilbao has achieved a number of promising results, mostly in his home country. The Spaniard will join Astana as a domestique but may get chances to compete for victories as well.
"We hope he will be a good domestique, who will assist Fabio Aru in the mountains, and also be able to catch up personally and maybe win some races, for example, in the Basque Country, in his homeland," Vinokourov explained. "He is young and active; we were observing him for a long time and decided to sign a contract with him for one year."
Bizhigitov (25) joins Astana after having spent the last two years at Vino 4-ever SKO Continental Team. His results, including his second place at the Asian Time Trial Championships in 2015, were enough for the young Kazakh to earn a trainee spot at Astana last August.
Chernetskiy (26) makes the move from Katusha after having won the Tour des Fjords in 2013, as well as a stage in the same race and the Volta a Catalunya of 2015.
