Alexey Lutsenko grabs much-needed win for Astana as he wins queen stage and overall classification of Giro di Sicilia

Astana Qazaqstan Team have deeply struggled throughout 2023, but they've been able to take their first high-quality result. Alexey Lutsenko has won the Giro di Sicilia after winning the queen stage.

The queen stage of the Sicilian race was set to have fireworks, and several riders anticipated the race blowing up. Alexis Guerin, Samuele Zoccarato, Luc Wirtgem, Martin Marcelusi, Erik Fetter, Negasi Haylu Abreha and Bart Lemmen went up the road building a decent breakaway group that would ahve an effect later in the race.

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The race climbed Mount Etna where the peloton lost many riders amidst a very strong pace, but UAE Team Emirates had the numbers. However despite this they weren't able to control the race. In the descent of the climb, which features a couple of explosive hilltops, several attacks took place and the team of the leader Finn Fisher-Black was left to chase with four riders in a small group.

Damiano Caruso, Alexey Lutsenko, Vincenzo Albanese and Simone Pettili attacked and joined several of the riders who were in the breakaway during that period, building a gap to those behind. They were however chasing a trio with Kobe Goossens, Mark Donovan and Gianmarco Garofoli which went up the road earlier on in the descent, causing a chaotic situation.

Alexey Lutsenko was the strongest in the final ascent of the day however, dropping the rest of his competition whilst the riders out front were also dropped. Fisher-Black benefited from the work of UAE to be able to bring in most of the attackers except for the Kazakh. Louis Meintjes attacked close to the summit and got a gap, but that was of over 30 seconds behind Lutsenko, who expanded it in the descent.

The technical roads didn't allow for an organized chance, and Lutsenko rode for what was Astana's second win of the season, conquering the overall classification in the process - a much needed win. Meintjes rode a strong finale to hang on to second place, whilst in the chasing group Vincenzo Albanese won the sprint for third place.

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